mahvsmalhaConfusable pair

Quick tell: mah is a intj, malha is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mah” is an intj and “malha” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,420
“mah” frequency rank
#10,925
“malha” frequency rank
40345
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mah malha
Definition usada para chamar ou deter alguém, ou para chamar sua atenção estrutura geométrica formada por linhas regulares ou não

Letter map: mah vs malha

Shared letters muted; letters that set mah and malha apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. mah runs 3 letters (CVC) against malha's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
mah
5 ch
malha

Role in the sentence - mah and malha

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mah is anintj and malhaanoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40345, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mah is recorded at frequency rank #29,420, classified as anintj. malha is at rank #10,925, tagged as anoun.

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 40345, this pair ranks #25,778 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mah vs malha

Shared letters: ahm. Private to "mah": -. Private to "malha": l.

"mah" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "malha" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • malha ← amlha · mahla · malah · malhha · mallha · mlaha · mmalha

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mah" and "malha" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mah" is an intj and "malha" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mah" or "malha"?
"malha" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,925 in our Portuguese list, against #29,420 for "mah". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "mah" and "malha".

  • Full dictionary entry for "mah" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "malha" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #25,778 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mah" and "malha" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs mah". 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 #25,778 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