mané vs mão, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#16,814
“mané” frequency rank: #451
“mão” frequency rank: 17265
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	mané	mão
Definition	pessoa boba, tolo	extremidade do membro anterior dos primatas, capaz de manipular objetos; parte do corpo semelhante ou análoga em outros animais

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set mané and mão apart are highlighted. They share 1 letter in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

mané

3 ch

mão

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

mané and mão 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17265, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mané is recorded at frequency rank #16,814, classified as anoun. mão is at rank #451, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mãw/.

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 17265, this pair ranks #54,028 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mané vs mão

Shared letters: m. Private to "mané": ané. Private to "mão": oã.

"mané" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "mão" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequency comparison

mané#16,814

mão#451

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mané" and "mão" be used interchangeably?

No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.

Which is more common, "mané" or "mão"?

"mão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #451 in our Portuguese list, against #16,814 for "mané". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering mané vs mão

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “mané” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable