Which to use
“malho” and “mão” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #44,473
- “malho” frequency rank
- #451
- “mão” frequency rank
- 44924
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | malho | mão |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | ferramenta com cabo de madeira e na extremidade uma peça de metal com uma superfície lisa, usada para bater pregos; martelo | extremidade do membro anterior dos primatas, capaz de manipular objetos; parte do corpo semelhante ou análoga em outros animais |
Letter map: malho vs mão
Shared letters muted; letters that set malho and mão apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Corpus notes: malho and mão
malho and mão 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44924, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
malho is recorded at frequency rank #44,473, classified as anoun. mão is at rank #451, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mãw/.
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 44924, this pair ranks #20,508 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of malho vs mão
Shared letters: mo. Private to "malho": ahl. Private to "mão": ã.
"malho" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "mão" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- malho ← amlho · mahlo · malhho · mallho · maloh · mlaho · mmalho
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "malho" and "mão" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "malho" or "mão" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pair "malho" vs "mão" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "malho" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #20,508 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "malho" and "mão" 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 #20,508 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.