maiovsmatizWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#523
“maio” frequency rank
#46,943
“matiz” frequency rank
47466
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maio matiz
Definition quinto mês do ano civil, formado por 31 dias união de diversas cores mescladas com proporção

Where the eye mixes maio and matiz

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. maio runs 4 letters (CVVV) against matiz's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
maio
5 ch
matiz

Why the eye confuses maio with matiz

A purely visual mix-up. maio (/ˈmaj.ju/) and matiz (/mɐ.ˈtiʃ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47466, 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/. matiz is at rank #46,943, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mɐ.ˈtiʃ/.

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 47466, this pair ranks #17,777 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of maio vs matiz

Shared letters: aim. Private to "maio": o. Private to "matiz": tz.

"maio" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "matiz" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maio ← amio · maoi · miao · mmaio
  • matiz ← amtiz · maitz · matizz · mattiz · matzi · mmatiz · mtaiz

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "maio" and "matiz" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈmaj.ju/ versus /mɐ.ˈtiʃ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "maio" or "matiz"?
"maio" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #523 in our Portuguese list, against #46,943 for "matiz". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "maio" and "matiz" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "maio" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "matiz" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #17,777 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maio" and "matiz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "math vs matiz". 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 #17,777 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