mahvsmirTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#29,420
“mah” frequency rank
#17,334
“mir” frequency rank
46754
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mah mir
Definition usada para chamar ou deter alguém, ou para chamar sua atenção milho

Letter map: mah vs mir

Shared letters muted; letters that set mah and mir apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. mah and mir follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

3 ch
mah
3 ch
mir

Grammar separator: mah vs mir

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mah is anintj and miranoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46754, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mah is recorded at frequency rank #29,420, classified as anintj. mir is at rank #17,334, 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 46754, this pair ranks #18,556 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mah vs mir

Shared letters: m. Private to "mah": ah. Private to "mir": ir.

"mah" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "mir" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mah" and "mir" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mah" is an intj and "mir" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mah" or "mir"?
"mir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,334 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 "mir".

  • Full dictionary entry for "mah" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #18,556 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mah" and "mir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs mah". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #18,556 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