maiovsmalhoConfusable pair

Which to use

“maio” and “malho” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#523
“maio” frequency rank
#44,473
“malho” frequency rank
44996
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maio malho
Definition quinto mês do ano civil, formado por 31 dias ferramenta com cabo de madeira e na extremidade uma peça de metal com uma superfície lisa, usada para bater pregos; martelo

Letter map: maio vs malho

Shared letters muted; letters that set maio and malho apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. maio runs 4 letters (CVVV) against malho's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
maio
5 ch
malho

Spelling & dictionary notes on maio vs malho

maio and malho are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44996, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maio is recorded at frequency rank #523, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmaj.ju/. 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 44996, this pair ranks #20,434 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of maio vs malho

Shared letters: amo. Private to "maio": i. Private to "malho": hl.

"maio" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "malho" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maio ← amio · maoi · miao · mmaio
  • malho ← amlho · mahlo · malhho · mallho · maloh · mlaho · mmalho

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "maio" and "malho" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "maio" vs "malho" - which ranks higher?
"maio" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #523 in our Portuguese list, against #44,473 for "malho". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "maio" and "malho".

  • Full dictionary entry for "maio" 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 #20,434 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maio" 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 #20,434 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