Which to use
“mãe” and “malte” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #170
- “mãe” frequency rank
- #30,244
- “malte” frequency rank
- 30414
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mãe | malte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | mulher que tem ou teve filhos, naturais ou adotivos | produto que resulta da germinação artificial e posterior dessecação de cereais |
Where the eye mixes mãe and malte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: mãe vs malte
A purely visual mix-up. mãe (/ˈmɐ̃j̃/) and malte (/ˈmaɫ.tɨ/) 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 30414, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mãe is recorded at frequency rank #170, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɐ̃j̃/. malte is at rank #30,244, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmaɫ.tɨ/.
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 30414, this pair ranks #37,936 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mãe vs malte
Shared letters: em. Private to "mãe": ã. Private to "malte": alt.
"mãe" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "malte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- malte ← amlte · malet · mallte · maltte · matle · mlate · mmalte
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "mãe" and "malte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "mãe" or "malte"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "mãe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "malte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #37,936 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mãe" and "malte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "malte vs malva". 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 #37,936 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.