macacavsmatançaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#28,268
“macaca” frequency rank
#14,646
“matança” frequency rank
42914
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature macaca matança
Definition jogo infantil sobre uma figura geométrica riscada no chão, com quadrinhos sobre os que se avança tirando uma pedra grande mortandade

Letter map: macaca vs matança

Shared letters muted; letters that set macaca and matança apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
macaca
7 ch
matança

Spelling & dictionary notes on macaca vs matança

macaca and matança are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42914, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

macaca is recorded at frequency rank #28,268, classified as anoun. matança is at rank #14,646, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mɐ.ˈtɐ̃.sɐ/.

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 42914, this pair ranks #22,789 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of macaca vs matança

Shared letters: am. Private to "macaca": c. Private to "matança": ntç.

"macaca" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "matança" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "macaca" and "matança" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "macaca" or "matança" show up more?
"matança" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,646 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.

What to do next

Pair "macaca" vs "matança" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "macaca" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "matança" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #22,789 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "macaca" and "matança" 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 #22,789 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