Which to use
“maço” is a noun and “manso” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #25,742
- “maço” frequency rank
- #22,382
- “manso” frequency rank
- 48124
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maço | manso |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | instrumento de madeira encabado para uso de carpinteiros, escultores, etc. | pacífico |
Where the eye mixes maço and manso
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. maço runs 4 letters (CVCV) against manso's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between maço and manso
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: maço is /ˈma.su/ while manso is /ˈmɐ̃.su/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48124, 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/. manso is at rank #22,382, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈmɐ̃.su/.
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 48124, this pair ranks #17,084 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of maço vs manso
Shared letters: amo. Private to "maço": ç. Private to "manso": ns.
"maço" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "manso" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- manso ← amnso · mannso · manos · mansso · masno · mmanso · mnaso
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "maço" for "manso" ever safe?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "maço" or "manso" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "maço" and "manso" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "maço" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "manso" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #17,084 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maço" and "manso" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs maço". 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 #17,084 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.