malhovsmayoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#44,473
“malho” frequency rank
#30,251
“mayo” frequency rank
74724
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Letter map: malho vs mayo

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

5 ch
malho
4 ch
mayo

Corpus notes: malho and mayo

malho and mayo 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74724, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

malho is recorded at frequency rank #44,473, classified as anoun. mayo is at rank #30,251, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈma.ʝo/.

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 74724, this pair ranks #2,448 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of malho vs mayo

Shared letters: amo. Private to "malho": hl. Private to "mayo": y.

"malho" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "mayo" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • malhoamlho · mahlo · malhho · mallho · maloh · mlaho · mmalho
  • mayoamyo · maoy · mayyo · mmayo · myao

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "malho" and "mayo" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "malho" vs "mayo" - which ranks higher?
"mayo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,251 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.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "malho" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mayo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,448 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "malho" and "mayo" 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 #2,448 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