maiavsmitConfusable pair

Quick tell: maia is a adjective, mit is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“maia” is an adjective and “mit” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,341
“maia” frequency rank
#13,791
“mit” frequency rank
17132
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maia mit
Definition relativo a maia ou aos maias também

Where the eye mixes maia and mit

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
maia
3 ch
mit

Visual trap between maia and mit

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: maia is /ˈmaj.ɐ/ while mit is /mɪt/. 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 (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17132, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maia is recorded at frequency rank #3,341, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈmaj.ɐ/. mit is at rank #13,791, tagged as anadv, pronounced /mɪt/.

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 17132, this pair ranks #54,203 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of maia vs mit

Shared letters: im. Private to "maia": a. Private to "mit": t.

"maia" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "mit" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maiaamia · maai · miaa · mmaia

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "maia" for "mit" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "maia" is an adjective and "mit" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "maia" or "mit" show up more?
"maia" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,341 in our Portuguese list, against #13,791 for "mit". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "maia" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #54,203 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maia" and "mit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs mit". 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 #54,203 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