MadrivsmarConfusable pair

Which to use

“Madri” and “mar” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#10,039
“Madri” frequency rank
#828
“mar” frequency rank
10867
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Madri mar
Definition capital da Espanha e da comunidade autônoma de mesmo nome grande quantidade de água salgada que cobre parte do planeta Terra, podendo estar localizada junto ou dentro de continentes

Where the eye mixes Madri and mar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Madri runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against mar's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
Madri
3 ch
mar

Visual trap between Madri and mar

A purely visual mix-up. Madri (/maˈdɾi/) and mar (/ˈmaɾ/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10867, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Madri is recorded at frequency rank #10,039, classified as anoun, pronounced /maˈdɾi/. mar is at rank #828, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmaɾ/.

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 10867, this pair ranks #62,115 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Madri vs mar

Shared letters: amr. Private to "Madri": di. Private to "mar": -.

"Madri" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "mar" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Madri ← amdri · maddri · madir · madrri · mardi · mdari · mmadri

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Madri" and "mar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/maˈdɾi/ versus /ˈmaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "Madri" or "mar" show up more?
"mar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #828 in our Portuguese list, against #10,039 for "Madri". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Madri" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #62,115 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Madri" and "mar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs mar". 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 #62,115 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