malhovsmansoWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#44,473
“malho” frequency rank
#22,382
“manso” frequency rank
66855
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature malho manso
Definition ferramenta com cabo de madeira e na extremidade uma peça de metal com uma superfície lisa, usada para bater pregos; martelo pacífico

Letter map: malho vs manso

Shared letters muted; letters that set malho and manso apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
malho
5 ch
manso

Role in the sentence - malho and manso

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: malho is anoun and mansoanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66855, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

malho is recorded at frequency rank #44,473, classified as anoun. manso is at rank #22,382, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈmɐ̃.su/.

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 66855, this pair ranks #4,841 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of malho vs manso

Shared letters: amo. Private to "malho": hl. Private to "manso": ns.

"malho" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "manso" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • malhoamlho · mahlo · malhho · mallho · maloh · mlaho · mmalho
  • mansoamnso · mannso · manos · mansso · masno · mmanso · mnaso

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "malho" and "manso" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "malho" is a noun and "manso" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "malho" vs "manso" - which ranks higher?
"manso" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,382 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

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "malho" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "manso" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #4,841 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "malho" and "manso" 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 #4,841 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