Which to use
“machão” is a noun and “macio” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #37,901
- “machão” frequency rank
- #14,891
- “macio” frequency rank
- 52792
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | machão | macio |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | mulher de aspecto e de modos varonis | que é suave aos sentidos. aveludado |
Where the eye mixes machão and macio
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. machão runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against macio's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses machão with macio
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: machão is /mɐ.ˈʃɐ̃w̃/ while macio is /mɐ.ˈsi.u/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52792, 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/. macio is at rank #14,891, tagged as anadj, pronounced /mɐ.ˈsi.u/.
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 52792, this pair ranks #12,493 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of machão vs macio
Shared letters: acmo. Private to "machão": hã. Private to "macio": i.
"machão" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "macio" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- macio ← amcio · maccio · macoi · maico · mcaio · mmacio
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "machão" and "macio" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "machão" or "macio" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "machão" and "macio" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "machão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "macio" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #12,493 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "machão" and "macio" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "machão vs malho". 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 #12,493 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.