maciovsmarcoWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#14,891
“macio” frequency rank
#1,754
“marco” frequency rank
16645
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature macio marco
Definition que é suave aos sentidos. aveludado sinal de demarcação que se põe nos limites territoriais

Where the eye mixes macio and marco

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
macio
5 ch
marco

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: macio is /mɐ.ˈsi.u/ while marco is /ˈmaɾ.ku/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16645, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

macio is recorded at frequency rank #14,891, classified as anadj, pronounced /mɐ.ˈsi.u/. marco is at rank #1,754, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmaɾ.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 16645, this pair ranks #54,840 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of macio vs marco

Shared letters: acmo. Private to "macio": i. Private to "marco": r.

"macio" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "marco" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • macioamcio · maccio · macoi · maico · mcaio · mmacio
  • marcoamrco · macro · marcco · maroc · marrco · mmarco · mraco

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "macio" and "marco" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "macio" is an adjective and "marco" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "macio" or "marco"?
"marco" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,754 in our Portuguese list, against #14,891 for "macio". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "macio" and "marco". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "macio" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "marco" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #54,840 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "macio" and "marco" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "macio vs matiz". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list