manyvsmaraConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#20,050
“many” frequency rank
#9,718
“mara” frequency rank
29768
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature many mara
Definition muito, muitos, muita, muitas roedor que habita as estepes da Patagônia, na Argentina (Dolichotis patagonum)

Where the eye mixes many and mara

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

4 ch
many
4 ch
mara

Look-alike desk: many vs mara

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: many is /ˈmɛ.ni/ while mara is /ˈma.ɾɐ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29768, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

many is recorded at frequency rank #20,050, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈmɛ.ni/. mara is at rank #9,718, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈma.ɾɐ/.

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 29768, this pair ranks #38,807 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of many vs mara

Shared letters: am. Private to "many": ny. Private to "mara": r.

"many" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "mara" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • manyamny · manny · manyy · mayn · mmany · mnay
  • maramarra · mmara · mraa

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "many" and "mara" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "many" is an adjective and "mara" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "many" or "mara" show up more?
"mara" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,718 in our Portuguese list, against #20,050 for "many". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "many" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mara" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #38,807 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "many" and "mara" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs many". 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 #38,807 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