malovsmodoWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#41,118
“malo” frequency rank
#606
“modo” frequency rank
41724
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature malo modo
Definition mau, malévolo: maneira, jeito

Letter map: malo vs modo

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

4 ch
malo
4 ch
modo

Part-of-speech tell for malo / modo

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: malo is anadjective and modoanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41724, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

malo is recorded at frequency rank #41,118, classified as anadj. modo is at rank #606, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɔ.du/.

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 41724, this pair ranks #24,155 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of malo vs modo

Shared letters: mo. Private to "malo": al. Private to "modo": d.

"malo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "modo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maloamlo · mallo · maol · mlao · mmalo
  • modomdoo · mmodo · moddo · omdo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "malo" and "modo" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "malo" is an adjective and "modo" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "malo" or "modo" show up more?
"modo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #606 in our Portuguese list, against #41,118 for "malo". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "malo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "modo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #24,155 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "malo" and "modo" 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 #24,155 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