Which to use
“malária” is a noun and “mataria” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #13,784
- “malária” frequency rank
- #25,042
- “mataria” frequency rank
- 38826
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | malária | mataria |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | doença infecciosa endêmica em muitas regiões tropicais e subtropicais do mundo, causada por um parasita, protozoário do gênero Plasmodium (da família plasmodiidae), transmitida aos seres humanos por meio da picada do mosquito Anopheles infectado ou ainda através de transmissão congênita (da mãe para o feto), por transfusão sanguínea ou hemoderivados e por uso de agulhas e seringas contaminada | primeira e terceira pessoa do singular do futuro do pretérito do verbo matar |
Where the eye mixes malária and mataria
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses malária with mataria
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: malária is /mɐ.ˈla.ɾjɐ/ while mataria is /ma.ta.ˈɾi.ɐ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38826, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
malária is recorded at frequency rank #13,784, classified as anoun, pronounced /mɐ.ˈla.ɾjɐ/. mataria is at rank #25,042, tagged as averb, pronounced /ma.ta.ˈɾi.ɐ/.
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 38826, this pair ranks #27,564 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of malária vs mataria
Shared letters: aimr. Private to "malária": lá. Private to "mataria": t.
"malária" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV · "mataria" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- mataria ← amtaria · maatria · mataira · matarai · matarria · matraia · mattaria · mmataria
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "malária" and "mataria" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "malária" or "mataria" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "malária" and "mataria" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "malária" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mataria" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #27,564 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "malária" and "mataria" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Maiara vs mataria". 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 #27,564 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.