malvavsmalvadoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#44,474
“malva” frequency rank
#23,040
“malvado” frequency rank
67514
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature malva malvado
Definition violeta que tem índole perversa ou que é praticado com desrespeito, violência ou crueldade

Letter map: malva vs malvado

Shared letters muted; letters that set malva and malvado apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

5 ch
malva
7 ch
malvado

Pair insight - malva / malvado

malva and malvado 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 2 extra letter(s) - “malva” sits inside “malvado”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67514, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

malva is recorded at frequency rank #44,474, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈmaɫ.vɐ/. malvado is at rank #23,040, tagged as anadj.

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 67514, this pair ranks #4,601 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of malva vs malvado

Shared letters: almv. Private to "malva": -. Private to "malvado": do.

"malva" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "malvado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • malvaamlva · malav · mallva · malvva · mavla · mlava · mmalva
  • malvadoamlvado · malavdo · mallvado · malvaddo · malvaod · malvdao · malvvado · mavlado

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "malva" and "malvado" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “malva” sits inside “malvado”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "malva" vs "malvado" - which ranks higher?
"malvado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,040 in our Portuguese list, against #44,474 for "malva". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "malva" vs "malvado" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "malva" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "malvado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #4,601 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "malva" and "malvado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs malva". 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 #4,601 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