Which to use
“magia” is a noun and “mana” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,001
- “magia” frequency rank
- #13,970
- “mana” frequency rank
- 17971
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | magia | mana |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | arte mágica | manual, de mão |
Where the eye mixes magia and mana
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. magia runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against mana's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: magia vs mana
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: magia is /mɐ.ˈʒi.ɐ/ while mana is /ˈma.na/.. 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 17971, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
magia is recorded at frequency rank #4,001, classified as anoun, pronounced /mɐ.ˈʒi.ɐ/. mana is at rank #13,970, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈma.na/..
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 17971, this pair ranks #53,137 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of magia vs mana
Shared letters: am. Private to "magia": gi. Private to "mana": n.
"magia" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "mana" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "magia" and "mana" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "magia" or "mana" show up more?
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 "magia" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mana" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #53,137 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "magia" and "mana" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs mana". 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 #53,137 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.