machãovsmansãoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#37,901
“machão” frequency rank
#6,672
“mansão” frequency rank
44573
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature machão mansão
Definition mulher de aspecto e de modos varonis morada

Where the eye mixes machão and mansão

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. machão and mansão follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
machão
6 ch
mansão

Look-alike desk: machão vs mansão

A purely visual mix-up. machão (/mɐ.ˈʃɐ̃w̃/) and mansão (/mɐ̃.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44573, 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/. mansão is at rank #6,672, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mɐ̃.ˈsɐ̃w̃/.

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 44573, this pair ranks #20,883 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of machão vs mansão

Shared letters: amoã. Private to "machão": ch. Private to "mansão": ns.

"machão" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "mansão" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "machão" and "mansão" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/mɐ.ˈʃɐ̃w̃/ versus /mɐ̃.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "machão" vs "mansão" - which ranks higher?
"mansão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,672 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

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "machão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mansão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #20,883 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "machão" and "mansão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "machão vs malho". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #20,883 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