maçãvsmicaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“maçã” and “mica” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#7,309
“maçã” frequency rank
#32,689
“mica” frequency rank
39998
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maçã mica
Definition o fruto comestível da macieira mineral do grupo de silicatos monoclínicos

Where the eye mixes maçã and mica

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. maçã and mica follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
maçã
4 ch
mica

Look-alike desk: maçã vs mica

A purely visual mix-up. maçã (/mɐ.ˈsɐ̃/) and mica (/ˈmi.kɐ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39998, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maçã is recorded at frequency rank #7,309, classified as anoun, pronounced /mɐ.ˈsɐ̃/. mica is at rank #32,689, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmi.kɐ/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 39998, this pair ranks #26,163 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of maçã vs mica

Shared letters: am. Private to "maçã": ãç. Private to "mica": ci.

"maçã" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "mica" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mica ← imca · mcia · miac · micca · mmica

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "maçã" for "mica" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/mɐ.ˈsɐ̃/ versus /ˈmi.kɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "maçã" vs "mica" - which ranks higher?
"maçã" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,309 in our Portuguese list, against #32,689 for "mica". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "maçã" and "mica" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "maçã" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mica" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #26,163 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maçã" and "mica" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mica vs mirra". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #26,163 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list