mamãovsmatasWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#23,399
“mamão” frequency rank
#10,927
“matas” frequency rank
34326
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mamão matas
Definition que mama muito plural de mata

Letter map: mamão vs matas

Shared letters muted; letters that set mamão and matas apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. mamão (CVCVV) and matas (CVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
mamão
5 ch
matas

Role in the sentence - mamão and matas

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mamão is anadjective and matasanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34326, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mamão is recorded at frequency rank #23,399, classified as anadj. matas is at rank #10,927, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈma.tɐʃ/.

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 34326, this pair ranks #32,974 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mamão vs matas

Shared letters: am. Private to "mamão": oã. Private to "matas": st.

"mamão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "matas" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • matas ← amtas · maats · matass · matsa · mattas · mmatas · mtaas

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mamão" for "matas" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mamão" is an adjective and "matas" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mamão" vs "matas" - which ranks higher?
"matas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,927 in our Portuguese list, against #23,399 for "mamão". 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 "mamão" and "matas".

  • Full dictionary entry for "mamão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "matas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #32,974 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mamão" and "matas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs mamão". 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 #32,974 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