malovsmaraTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#41,118
“malo” frequency rank
#9,718
“mara” frequency rank
50836
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature malo mara
Definition mau, malévolo: roedor que habita as estepes da Patagônia, na Argentina (Dolichotis patagonum)

Letter map: malo vs mara

Shared letters muted; letters that set malo and mara apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. malo and mara 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
mara

Role in the sentence - malo and mara

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: malo is anadjective and maraanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50836, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

malo is recorded at frequency rank #41,118, classified as anadj. mara is at rank #9,718, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈma.ɾɐ/.

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 50836, this pair ranks #14,126 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of malo vs mara

Shared letters: am. Private to "malo": lo. Private to "mara": r.

"malo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "mara" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • malo ← amlo · mallo · maol · mlao · mmalo
  • mara ← marra · mmara · mraa

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "malo" and "mara" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "malo" is an adjective and "mara" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "malo" or "mara"?
"mara" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,718 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

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "malo" and "mara".

  • Full dictionary entry for "malo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mara" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #14,126 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "malo" and "mara" 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 #14,126 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