malovsmaréTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#41,118
“malo” frequency rank
#7,659
“maré” frequency rank
48777
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature malo maré
Definition mau, malévolo: movimento periódico de subida e descida das águas do mar

Letter map: malo vs maré

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

Role in the sentence - malo and maré

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: malo is anadjective and maréanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48777, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

malo is recorded at frequency rank #41,118, classified as anadj. maré is at rank #7,659, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mɐ.ˈɾɛ/.

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 48777, this pair ranks #16,374 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of malo vs maré

Shared letters: am. Private to "malo": lo. Private to "maré": ré.

"malo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "maré" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "malo" and "maré" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "malo" is an adjective and "maré" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "malo" or "maré"?
"maré" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,659 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

You've compared "malo" and "maré". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "malo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "maré" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,374 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "malo" and "maré" 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 #16,374 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