malhadovsmalhoConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#36,532
“malhado” frequency rank
#44,473
“malho” frequency rank
81005
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature malhado malho
Definition animal que possui manchas ou malhas ferramenta com cabo de madeira e na extremidade uma peça de metal com uma superfície lisa, usada para bater pregos; martelo

Letter map: malhado vs malho

Shared letters muted; letters that set malhado and malho apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. malhado runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against malho's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
malhado
5 ch
malho

Grammar separator: malhado vs malho

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: malhado is anadjective and malhoanoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81005, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

malhado is recorded at frequency rank #36,532, classified as anadj, pronounced /mɐ.ˈʎa.du/. malho is at rank #44,473, tagged as anoun.

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 81005, this pair ranks #1,225 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of malhado vs malho

Shared letters: ahlmo. Private to "malhado": d. Private to "malho": -.

"malhado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "malho" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • malhado ← amlhado · mahlado · malahdo · malhaddo · malhaod · malhdao · malhhado · mallhado
  • malho ← amlho · mahlo · malhho · mallho · maloh · mlaho · mmalho

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "malhado" for "malho" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "malhado" is an adjective and "malho" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "malhado" vs "malho" - which ranks higher?
"malhado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,532 in our Portuguese list, against #44,473 for "malho". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "malhado" and "malho".

  • Full dictionary entry for "malhado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "malho" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,225 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "malhado" and "malho" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "malho 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 #1,225 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