maiovsmathConfusable pair

Quick tell: maio is a noun, math is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“maio” is a noun and “math” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#523
“maio” frequency rank
#31,869
“math” frequency rank
32392
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maio math
Definition quinto mês do ano civil, formado por 31 dias bom

Letter map: maio vs math

Shared letters muted; letters that set maio and math apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. maio (CVVV) and math (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
maio
4 ch
math

Part-of-speech tell for maio / math

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: maio is anoun and mathanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32392, 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/. math is at rank #31,869, tagged as anadj.

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 32392, this pair ranks #35,435 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of maio vs math

Shared letters: am. Private to "maio": io. Private to "math": ht.

"maio" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "math" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maio ← amio · maoi · miao · mmaio
  • math ← amth · maht · mathh · matth · mmath · mtah

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "maio" and "math" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "maio" is a noun and "math" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "maio" or "math" show up more?
"maio" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #523 in our Portuguese list, against #31,869 for "math". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "maio" vs "math" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "maio" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "math" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #35,435 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maio" and "math" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs math". 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 #35,435 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