malhavsmaloTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#10,925
“malha” frequency rank
#41,118
“malo” frequency rank
52043
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature malha malo
Definition estrutura geométrica formada por linhas regulares ou não mau, malévolo:

Letter map: malha vs malo

Shared letters muted; letters that set malha and malo apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. malha runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against malo's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
malha
4 ch
malo

Part-of-speech tell for malha / malo

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: malha is anoun and maloanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52043, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

malha is recorded at frequency rank #10,925, classified as anoun. malo is at rank #41,118, 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 52043, this pair ranks #13,089 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of malha vs malo

Shared letters: alm. Private to "malha": h. Private to "malo": o.

"malha" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "malo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • malha ← amlha · mahla · malah · malhha · mallha · mlaha · mmalha
  • malo ← amlo · mallo · maol · mlao · mmalo

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "malha" and "malo" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "malha" is a noun and "malo" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "malha" or "malo"?
"malha" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,925 in our Portuguese list, against #41,118 for "malo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "malha" vs "malo" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "malha" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "malo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #13,089 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "malha" and "malo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs malo". 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 #13,089 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