mãosvsmostWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: mãos is a noun, most is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mãos” is a noun and “most” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#761
“mãos” frequency rank
#13,567
“most” frequency rank
14328
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mãos most
Definition plural de mão muito

Letter map: mãos vs most

Shared letters muted; letters that set mãos and most apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
mãos
4 ch
most

Grammar separator: mãos vs most

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mãos is anoun and mostanadverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14328, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mãos is recorded at frequency rank #761, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɐ̃w̃ʃ/. most is at rank #13,567, tagged as anadv.

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 14328, this pair ranks #57,791 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mãos vs most

Shared letters: mos. Private to "mãos": ã. Private to "most": t.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mostmmost · mosst · mostt · mots · msot · omst

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mãos" for "most" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mãos" is a noun and "most" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mãos" vs "most" - which ranks higher?
"mãos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #761 in our Portuguese list, against #13,567 for "most". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "mãos" and "most".

  • Full dictionary entry for "mãos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "most" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #57,791 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mãos" and "most" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "most vs muso". 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 #57,791 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