malvavsmanaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#44,474
“malva” frequency rank
#13,970
“mana” frequency rank
58444
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature malva mana
Definition violeta manual, de mão

Where the eye mixes malva and mana

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
malva
4 ch
mana

Visual trap between malva and mana

A purely visual mix-up. malva (/ˈmaɫ.vɐ/) and mana (/ˈma.na/.) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58444, 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/. mana is at rank #13,970, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈma.na/..

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 58444, this pair ranks #8,734 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of malva vs mana

Shared letters: am. Private to "malva": lv. Private to "mana": n.

"malva" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "mana" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • malvaamlva · malav · mallva · malvva · mavla · mlava · mmalva
  • manaamna · maan · manna · mmana · mnaa

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "malva" and "mana" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈmaɫ.vɐ/ versus /ˈma.na/.) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "malva" or "mana" show up more?
"mana" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,970 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

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "malva" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mana" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #8,734 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "malva" and "mana" 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 #8,734 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