Which to use
“machão” is a noun and “maciço” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #37,901
- “machão” frequency rank
- #19,489
- “maciço” frequency rank
- 57390
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | machão | maciço |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | mulher de aspecto e de modos varonis | compacto; sem vazios internos |
Letter map: machão vs maciço
Shared letters muted; letters that set machão and maciço apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. machão (CVCCVV) and maciço (CVCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Part-of-speech tell for machão / maciço
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: machão is anoun and maciçoanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57390, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
machão is recorded at frequency rank #37,901, classified as anoun, pronounced /mɐ.ˈʃɐ̃w̃/. 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 57390, this pair ranks #9,377 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of machão vs maciço
Shared letters: acmo. Private to "machão": hã. Private to "maciço": iç.
"machão" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "maciço" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "machão" and "maciço" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "machão" or "maciço" show up more?
After this comparison
You've compared "machão" and "maciço". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "machão" 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 #9,377 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "machão" and "maciço" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "machão vs malho". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #9,377 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.