maçovsmicroWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#25,742
“maço” frequency rank
#4,247
“micro” frequency rank
29989
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maço micro
Definition instrumento de madeira encabado para uso de carpinteiros, escultores, etc. muito pequeno

Letter map: maço vs micro

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

4 ch
maço
5 ch
micro

Grammar separator: maço vs micro

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: maço is anoun and microanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29989, 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/. micro is at rank #4,247, tagged as anadj.

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 29989, this pair ranks #38,494 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of maço vs micro

Shared letters: mo. Private to "maço": . Private to "micro": cir.

"maço" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "micro" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • microimcro · mciro · miccro · micor · micrro · mirco · mmicro

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "maço" and "micro" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "maço" is a noun and "micro" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "maço" or "micro" show up more?
"micro" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,247 in our Portuguese list, against #25,742 for "maço". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "maço" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "micro" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #38,494 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maço" and "micro" 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 #38,494 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