malharvsmalhoConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#26,455
“malhar” frequency rank
#44,473
“malho” frequency rank
70928
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature malhar malho
Definition bater com malho ou instrumento análogo ferramenta com cabo de madeira e na extremidade uma peça de metal com uma superfície lisa, usada para bater pregos; martelo

Letter map: malhar vs malho

Shared letters muted; letters that set malhar and malho apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. malhar runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against malho's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
malhar
5 ch
malho

Part-of-speech tell for malhar / malho

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: malhar is averb and malhoanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70928, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

malhar is recorded at frequency rank #26,455, classified as averb, pronounced /mɐ.ˈʎaɾ/. 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 70928, this pair ranks #3,489 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of malhar vs malho

Shared letters: ahlm. Private to "malhar": r. Private to "malho": o.

"malhar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "malho" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • malhar ← amlhar · mahlar · malahr · malharr · malhhar · malhra · mallhar · mlahar
  • malho ← amlho · mahlo · malhho · mallho · maloh · mlaho · mmalho

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "malhar" for "malho" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "malhar" is a verb and "malho" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "malhar" or "malho" show up more?
"malhar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,455 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.

What to do next

You've compared "malhar" and "malho". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "malhar" 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 #3,489 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "malhar" 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 #3,489 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