malhadovsmolhadoTell them apart

Which to use

“malhado” and “molhado” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#36,532
“malhado” frequency rank
#10,048
“molhado” frequency rank
46580
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature malhado molhado
Definition animal que possui manchas ou malhas que recebeu líquido; úmido

Letter map: malhado vs molhado

Shared letters muted; letters that set malhado and molhado apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. malhado and molhado follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
malhado
7 ch
molhado

Pair insight - malhado / molhado

malhado and molhado are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - a in “malhado” becomes o in “molhado”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46580, 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/. molhado is at rank #10,048, 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 46580, this pair ranks #18,712 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of malhado vs molhado

Shared letters: adhlmo. Private to "malhado": -. Private to "molhado": -.

"malhado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "molhado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • malhado ← amlhado · mahlado · malahdo · malhaddo · malhaod · malhdao · malhhado · mallhado
  • molhado ← mlohado · mmolhado · mohlado · molahdo · molhaddo · molhaod · molhdao · molhhado

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "malhado" and "molhado" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by a single letter - a in “malhado” becomes o in “molhado”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "malhado" vs "molhado" - which ranks higher?
"molhado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,048 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.

Useful next steps

You've compared "malhado" and "molhado". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "malhado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "molhado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #18,712 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "malhado" and "molhado" 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 #18,712 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