mãosvsMarcTell them apart

Which to use

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

#761
“mãos” frequency rank
#9,529
“Marc” frequency rank
10290
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mãos Marc
Definition plural de mão Marcos

Where the eye mixes mãos and Marc

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. mãos (CVVC) and Marc (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
mãos
4 ch
Marc

Look-alike desk: mãos vs Marc

A purely visual mix-up. mãos (/ˈmɐ̃w̃ʃ/) and Marc (/maʁk/.) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10290, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mãos is recorded at frequency rank #761, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɐ̃w̃ʃ/. Marc is at rank #9,529, tagged as anoun, pronounced /maʁk/..

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 10290, this pair ranks #62,864 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mãos vs Marc

Shared letters: m. Private to "mãos": osã. Private to "Marc": acr.

"mãos" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "Marc" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Marc ← amrc · macr · marcc · marrc · mmarc · mrac

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mãos" and "Marc" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈmɐ̃w̃ʃ/ versus /maʁk/.) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "mãos" vs "Marc" - which ranks higher?
"mãos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #761 in our Portuguese list, against #9,529 for "Marc". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mãos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Marc" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #62,864 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mãos" and "Marc" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs Marc". 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 #62,864 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