machãovsmalhaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#37,901
“machão” frequency rank
#10,925
“malha” frequency rank
48826
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature machão malha
Definition mulher de aspecto e de modos varonis estrutura geométrica formada por linhas regulares ou não

Letter map: machão vs malha

Shared letters muted; letters that set machão and malha apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. machão runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against malha's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
machão
5 ch
malha

Corpus notes: machão and malha

machão and malha 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 48826, 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/. malha is at rank #10,925, tagged as anoun.

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 48826, this pair ranks #16,303 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of machão vs malha

Shared letters: ahm. Private to "machão": coã. Private to "malha": l.

"machão" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "malha" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • malha ← amlha · mahla · malah · malhha · mallha · mlaha · mmalha

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "machão" and "malha" be used interchangeably?
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.
Which is more common, "machão" or "malha"?
"malha" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,925 in our Portuguese list, against #37,901 for "machão". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "machão" vs "malha" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "machão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "malha" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,303 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "machão" and "malha" 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 #16,303 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