machãovsmanhasTell them apart

Which to use

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

#37,901
“machão” frequency rank
#43,982
“manhas” frequency rank
81883
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature machão manhas
Definition mulher de aspecto e de modos varonis manhas, costume, hábito, modo

Letter map: machão vs manhas

Shared letters muted; letters that set machão and manhas apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. machão (CVCCVV) and manhas (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
machão
6 ch
manhas

Corpus notes: machão and manhas

machão and manhas 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 share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81883, 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/. manhas is at rank #43,982, 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 81883, this pair ranks #1,098 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of machão vs manhas

Shared letters: ahm. Private to "machão": coã. Private to "manhas": ns.

"machão" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "manhas" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • manhas ← amnhas · mahnas · manahs · manhass · manhhas · manhsa · mannhas · mmanhas

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "machão" and "manhas" be used interchangeably?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "machão" vs "manhas" - which ranks higher?
"machão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,901 in our Portuguese list, against #43,982 for "manhas". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "machão" and "manhas".

  • Full dictionary entry for "machão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "manhas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,098 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "machão" and "manhas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "manhas vs manhoso". 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 #1,098 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