malhovsmilhãoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#44,473
“malho” frequency rank
#1,895
“milhão” frequency rank
46368
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature malho milhão
Definition ferramenta com cabo de madeira e na extremidade uma peça de metal com uma superfície lisa, usada para bater pregos; martelo grande quantidade incontável:

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set malho and milhão apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
malho
6 ch
milhão

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

malho and milhão 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 46368, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

malho is recorded at frequency rank #44,473, classified as anoun. milhão is at rank #1,895, 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 46368, this pair ranks #18,944 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of malho vs milhão

Shared letters: hlmo. Private to "malho": a. Private to "milhão": .

"malho" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "milhão" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequency comparison

malho#44,473
milhão#1,895

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "malho" and "milhão" 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.
Which is more common, "malho" or "milhão"?
"milhão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,895 in our Portuguese list, against #44,473 for "malho". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering malho vs milhão

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 FrequencyWords open word-frequency list