mãovsMPBTell them apart

Quick tell: mão is a noun, MPB is an abbrev, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mão” is a noun and “MPB” is an abbrev - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#451
“mão” frequency rank
#12,295
“MPB” frequency rank
12746
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mão MPB
Definition extremidade do membro anterior dos primatas, capaz de manipular objetos; parte do corpo semelhante ou análoga em outros animais sigla para música popular brasileira

Letter map: mão vs MPB

Shared letters muted; letters that set mão and MPB apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
mão
3 ch
MPB

Part-of-speech tell for mão / MPB

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mão is anoun and MPBanabbrev. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12746, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mão is recorded at frequency rank #451, classified as anoun, pronounced /mãw/. MPB is at rank #12,295, tagged as anabbrev.

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 12746, this pair ranks #59,745 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mão vs MPB

Shared letters: m. Private to "mão": . Private to "MPB": bp.

"mão" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "MPB" · 3 letters · shape CCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mão" for "MPB" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mão" is a noun and "MPB" an abbrev, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mão" or "MPB"?
"mão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #451 in our Portuguese list, against #12,295 for "MPB". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "MPB" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #59,745 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mão" and "MPB" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs MPB". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #59,745 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