malovsmanéConfusable pair

Quick tell: malo is a adjective, mané is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#41,118
“malo” frequency rank
#16,814
“mané” frequency rank
57932
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature malo mané
Definition mau, malévolo: pessoa boba, tolo

Letter map: malo vs mané

Shared letters muted; letters that set malo and mané apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. malo and mané follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
malo
4 ch
mané

Grammar separator: malo vs mané

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: malo is anadjective and manéanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57932, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

malo is recorded at frequency rank #41,118, classified as anadj. mané is at rank #16,814, 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 57932, this pair ranks #9,039 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of malo vs mané

Shared letters: am. Private to "malo": lo. Private to "mané": né.

"malo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "mané" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • malo ← amlo · mallo · maol · mlao · mmalo

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "malo" and "mané" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "malo" is an adjective and "mané" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "malo" vs "mané" - which ranks higher?
"mané" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,814 in our Portuguese list, against #41,118 for "malo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "malo" vs "mané" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "malo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mané" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #9,039 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "malo" and "mané" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs malo". 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 #9,039 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