malhovsmelãoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#44,473
“malho” frequency rank
#17,854
“melão” frequency rank
62327
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature malho melão
Definition ferramenta com cabo de madeira e na extremidade uma peça de metal com uma superfície lisa, usada para bater pregos; martelo o fruto do meloeiro, Cucumis melo

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set malho and melão apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
malho
5 ch
melão

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

malho and melão 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62327, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

malho is recorded at frequency rank #44,473, classified as anoun. melão is at rank #17,854, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mɨ.ˈlɐ̃w̃/.

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 62327, this pair ranks #6,725 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of malho vs melão

Shared letters: lmo. Private to "malho": ah. Private to "melão": .

"malho" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "melão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • malhoamlho · mahlo · malhho · mallho · maloh · mlaho · mmalho

Frequency comparison

malho#44,473
melão#17,854

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "malho" and "melão" be used interchangeably?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "malho" or "melão"?
"melão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,854 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.

Remembering malho vs melão

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “malho” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list