Which to use
“mal” is an adverb and “malte” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #319
- “mal” frequency rank
- #30,244
- “malte” frequency rank
- 30563
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mal | malte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | de forma pouco satisfatória | produto que resulta da germinação artificial e posterior dessecação de cereais |
Where the eye mixes mal and malte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: mal vs malte
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mal is /ˈmaw/ while malte is /ˈmaɫ.tɨ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “mal” sits inside “malte”, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30563, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mal is recorded at frequency rank #319, classified as anadv, pronounced /ˈmaw/. malte is at rank #30,244, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmaɫ.tɨ/.
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 30563, this pair ranks #37,744 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mal vs malte
Shared letters: alm. Private to "mal": -. Private to "malte": et.
"mal" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "malte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- malte ← amlte · malet · mallte · maltte · matle · mlate · mmalte
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "mal" and "malte" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "mal" vs "malte" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "mal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "malte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #37,744 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mal" and "malte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "malte 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 #37,744 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.