Which to use
“malhado” and “marcado” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #36,532
- “malhado” frequency rank
- #2,487
- “marcado” frequency rank
- 39019
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | malhado | marcado |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | animal que possui manchas ou malhas | assinalado com marca |
Where the eye mixes malhado and marcado
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. malhado and marcado follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between malhado and marcado
A purely visual mix-up. malhado (/mɐ.ˈʎa.du/) and marcado (/mɐɾ.ˈka.du/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39019, 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/. marcado is at rank #2,487, tagged as anadj, pronounced /mɐɾ.ˈka.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 39019, this pair ranks #27,340 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of malhado vs marcado
Shared letters: admo. Private to "malhado": hl. Private to "marcado": cr.
"malhado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "marcado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "malhado" and "marcado" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "malhado" or "marcado"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "malhado" and "marcado" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "malhado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "marcado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #27,340 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "malhado" and "marcado" 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 #27,340 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.