mãovsmarzoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#451
“mão” frequency rank
#43,029
“marzo” frequency rank
43480
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mão marzo
Definition extremidade do membro anterior dos primatas, capaz de manipular objetos; parte do corpo semelhante ou análoga em outros animais março

Where the eye mixes mão and marzo

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

3 ch
mão
5 ch
marzo

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. mão (/mãw/) and marzo (/'mar.so/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43480, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mão is recorded at frequency rank #451, classified as anoun, pronounced /mãw/. marzo is at rank #43,029, tagged as anoun, pronounced /'mar.so/.

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 43480, this pair ranks #22,150 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mão vs marzo

Shared letters: mo. Private to "mão": ã. Private to "marzo": arz.

"mão" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "marzo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • marzoamrzo · maroz · marrzo · marzzo · mazro · mmarzo · mrazo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mão" and "marzo" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/mãw/ versus /'mar.so/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mão" or "marzo"?
"mão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #451 in our Portuguese list, against #43,029 for "marzo". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "mão" and "marzo". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "marzo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #22,150 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mão" and "marzo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "malho vs marzo". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list