Which to use
“mah” is an intj and “malho” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #29,420
- “mah” frequency rank
- #44,473
- “malho” frequency rank
- 73893
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mah | malho |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | usada para chamar ou deter alguém, ou para chamar sua atenção | ferramenta com cabo de madeira e na extremidade uma peça de metal com uma superfície lisa, usada para bater pregos; martelo |
Letter map: mah vs malho
Shared letters muted; letters that set mah and malho apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. mah runs 3 letters (CVC) against malho's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Role in the sentence - mah and malho
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mah is anintj and malhoanoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73893, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mah is recorded at frequency rank #29,420, classified as anintj. malho is at rank #44,473, 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 73893, this pair ranks #2,660 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of mah vs malho
Shared letters: ahm. Private to "mah": -. Private to "malho": lo.
"mah" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "malho" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- malho ← amlho · mahlo · malhho · mallho · maloh · mlaho · mmalho
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "mah" and "malho" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "mah" or "malho" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pair "mah" vs "malho" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "mah" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "malho" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #2,660 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mah" and "malho" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "malho 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 #2,660 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.