maçovsmahTell them apart

Quick tell: maço is a noun, mah is an intj, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“maço” is a noun and “mah” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#25,742
“maço” frequency rank
#29,420
“mah” frequency rank
55162
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maço mah
Definition instrumento de madeira encabado para uso de carpinteiros, escultores, etc. usada para chamar ou deter alguém, ou para chamar sua atenção

Letter map: maço vs mah

Shared letters muted; letters that set maço and mah apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
maço
3 ch
mah

Part-of-speech tell for maço / mah

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: maço is anoun and mahanintj. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55162, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maço is recorded at frequency rank #25,742, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈma.su/. mah is at rank #29,420, tagged as anintj.

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 55162, this pair ranks #10,769 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of maço vs mah

Shared letters: am. Private to "maço": . Private to "mah": h.

"maço" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "mah" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "maço" for "mah" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "maço" is a noun and "mah" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "maço" or "mah"?
"maço" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,742 in our Portuguese list, against #29,420 for "mah". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "maço" and "mah".

  • Full dictionary entry for "maço" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mah" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #10,769 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maço" and "mah" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs mah". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #10,769 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