Which to use
“madre” and “maré” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,219
- “madre” frequency rank
- #7,659
- “maré” frequency rank
- 16878
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | madre | maré |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | mãe | movimento periódico de subida e descida das águas do mar |
Where the eye mixes madre and maré
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: madre vs maré
A purely visual mix-up. madre (/ˈma.dɾɨ/) and maré (/mɐ.ˈɾɛ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16878, 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/. maré is at rank #7,659, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mɐ.ˈɾɛ/.
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 16878, this pair ranks #54,544 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of madre vs maré
Shared letters: amr. Private to "madre": de. Private to "maré": é.
"madre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "maré" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- madre ← amdre · maddre · mader · madrre · marde · mdare · mmadre
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "madre" and "maré" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "madre" vs "maré" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "madre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maré" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #54,544 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "madre" and "maré" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs maré". 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 #54,544 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.