macacavsmaciçoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: macaca is a noun, maciço is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“macaca” is a noun and “maciço” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,268
“macaca” frequency rank
#19,489
“maciço” frequency rank
47757
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature macaca maciço
Definition jogo infantil sobre uma figura geométrica riscada no chão, com quadrinhos sobre os que se avança tirando uma pedra compacto; sem vazios internos

Letter map: macaca vs maciço

Shared letters muted; letters that set macaca and maciço apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

6 ch
macaca
6 ch
maciço

Role in the sentence - macaca and maciço

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: macaca is anoun and maciçoanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47757, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

macaca is recorded at frequency rank #28,268, classified as anoun. maciço is at rank #19,489, tagged as anadj.

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 47757, this pair ranks #17,474 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of macaca vs maciço

Shared letters: acm. Private to "macaca": -. Private to "maciço": ioç.

"macaca" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "maciço" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • macacaamcaca · maacca · macaac · macacca · maccaa · maccaca · mcaaca · mmacaca

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "macaca" and "maciço" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "macaca" is a noun and "maciço" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "macaca" vs "maciço" - which ranks higher?
"maciço" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,489 in our Portuguese list, against #28,268 for "macaca". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "macaca" and "maciço". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "macaca" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "maciço" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #17,474 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "macaca" and "maciço" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "macaca vs marajá". 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 #17,474 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