Which to use
“machado” is a noun and “malhado” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,891
- “machado” frequency rank
- #36,532
- “malhado” frequency rank
- 39423
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | machado | malhado |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | ferramenta cortante composta de um cabo (usualmente de madeira) e uma cabeça (usualmente de ferro) com gumes de um ou dois lados | animal que possui manchas ou malhas |
Where the eye mixes machado and malhado
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. machado and malhado follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses machado with malhado
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: machado is /mɐ.ˈʃa.du/ while malhado is /mɐ.ˈʎa.du/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - c in “machado” becomes l in “malhado”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39423, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
machado is recorded at frequency rank #2,891, classified as anoun, pronounced /mɐ.ˈʃa.du/. malhado is at rank #36,532, tagged as anadj, pronounced /mɐ.ˈʎa.du/.
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 39423, this pair ranks #26,827 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of machado vs malhado
Shared letters: adhmo. Private to "machado": c. Private to "malhado": l.
"machado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "malhado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "machado" and "malhado" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "machado" vs "malhado" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "machado" and "malhado" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "machado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "malhado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #26,827 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "machado" and "malhado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "malhado vs melado". 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 #26,827 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.