maciçovsMéxicoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: maciço is a adjective, México is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“maciço” is an adjective and “México” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#19,489
“maciço” frequency rank
#1,123
“México” frequency rank
20612
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maciço México
Definition compacto; sem vazios internos país da América do Norte, localizado ao sul dos Estados Unidos da América e ao norte da Guatemala e do Belize, sendo que sua capital é a Cidade do México

Letter map: maciço vs México

Shared letters muted; letters that set maciço and México apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. maciço and México follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
maciço
6 ch
México

Role in the sentence - maciço and México

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: maciço is anadjective and Méxicoanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20612, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maciço is recorded at frequency rank #19,489, classified as anadj. México is at rank #1,123, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɛ.ʃi.ku/.

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 20612, this pair ranks #49,849 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of maciço vs México

Shared letters: cimo. Private to "maciço": aç. Private to "México": xé.

"maciço" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "México" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "maciço" for "México" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "maciço" is an adjective and "México" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "maciço" vs "México" - which ranks higher?
"México" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,123 in our Portuguese list, against #19,489 for "maciço". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "maciço" and "México".

  • Full dictionary entry for "maciço" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "México" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #49,849 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maciço" and "México" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "machão vs maciço". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #49,849 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