manhãvsmapaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#428
“manhã” frequency rank
#1,853
“mapa” frequency rank
2281
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature manhã mapa
Definition período do dia entre o nascer-do-sol e o meio-dia carta geográfica ou celestial

Where the eye mixes manhã and mapa

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch
manhã
4 ch
mapa

Why the eye confuses manhã with mapa

A purely visual mix-up. manhã (/mɐ.ˈɲɐ̃/) and mapa (/ˈma.pɐ/) 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 2281, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

manhã is recorded at frequency rank #428, classified as anoun, pronounced /mɐ.ˈɲɐ̃/. mapa is at rank #1,853, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈma.pɐ/.

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 2281, this pair ranks #73,147 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of manhã vs mapa

Shared letters: am. Private to "manhã": hnã. Private to "mapa": p.

"manhã" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "mapa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mapaampa · maap · mappa · mmapa · mpaa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "manhã" for "mapa" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/mɐ.ˈɲɐ̃/ versus /ˈma.pɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "manhã" vs "mapa" - which ranks higher?
"manhã" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #428 in our Portuguese list, against #1,853 for "mapa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "manhã" and "mapa" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "manhã" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mapa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #73,147 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "manhã" and "mapa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs mapa". 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 #73,147 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