madrevsmaduroWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#9,219
“madre” frequency rank
#7,944
“maduro” frequency rank
17163
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature madre maduro
Definition mãe diz-se do fruto que atingiu a última fase do desenvolvimento

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set madre and maduro apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
madre
6 ch
maduro

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: madre is /ˈma.dɾɨ/ while maduro is /mɐ.ˈdu.ɾu/. 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 17163, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

madre is recorded at frequency rank #9,219, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈma.dɾɨ/. maduro is at rank #7,944, tagged as anadj, pronounced /mɐ.ˈdu.ɾu/.

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 17163, this pair ranks #54,160 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of madre vs maduro

Shared letters: admr. Private to "madre": e. Private to "maduro": ou.

"madre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "maduro" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • madreamdre · maddre · mader · madrre · marde · mdare · mmadre
  • maduroamduro · madduro · madruo · maduor · madurro · maudro · mdauro · mmaduro

Frequency comparison

madre#9,219
maduro#7,944

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "madre" and "maduro" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "madre" is a noun and "maduro" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "madre" or "maduro"?
"maduro" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,944 in our Portuguese list, against #9,219 for "madre". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering madre vs maduro

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “madre”; for an adjective, it's “maduro”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “madre” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list