maldadevsmalhadoTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#8,645
“maldade” frequency rank
#36,532
“malhado” frequency rank
45177
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maldade malhado
Definition qualidade de mau animal que possui manchas ou malhas

Letter map: maldade vs malhado

Shared letters muted; letters that set maldade and malhado apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

7 ch
maldade
7 ch
malhado

Grammar separator: maldade vs malhado

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: maldade is anoun and malhadoanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45177, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maldade is recorded at frequency rank #8,645, classified as anoun. malhado is at rank #36,532, tagged as anadj, pronounced /mɐ.ˈʎa.du/.

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 45177, this pair ranks #20,234 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of maldade vs malhado

Shared letters: adlm. Private to "maldade": e. Private to "malhado": ho.

"maldade" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "malhado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maldadeamldade · madlade · maladde · maldadde · maldaed · malddade · malddae · malldade
  • malhadoamlhado · mahlado · malahdo · malhaddo · malhaod · malhdao · malhhado · mallhado

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "maldade" and "malhado" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "maldade" is a noun and "malhado" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "maldade" or "malhado"?
"maldade" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,645 in our Portuguese list, against #36,532 for "malhado". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "maldade" vs "malhado" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "maldade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "malhado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #20,234 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maldade" and "malhado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "malhado vs melado". 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 #20,234 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