marvsmuroTell them apart

Which to use

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

#828
“mar” frequency rank
#4,664
“muro” frequency rank
5492
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mar muro
Definition grande quantidade de água salgada que cobre parte do planeta Terra, podendo estar localizada junto ou dentro de continentes construção comumente usada para separar terrenos

Where the eye mixes mar and muro

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

3 ch
mar
4 ch
muro

Why the eye confuses mar with muro

A purely visual mix-up. mar (/ˈmaɾ/) and muro (/ˈmu.ɾu/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5492, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mar is recorded at frequency rank #828, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmaɾ/. muro is at rank #4,664, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmu.ɾu/.

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 5492, this pair ranks #69,109 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mar vs muro

Shared letters: mr. Private to "mar": a. Private to "muro": ou.

"mar" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "muro" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • murommuro · mruo · muor · umro

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mar" and "muro" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈmaɾ/ versus /ˈmu.ɾu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "mar" vs "muro" - which ranks higher?
"mar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #828 in our Portuguese list, against #4,664 for "muro". 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 "mar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "muro" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #69,109 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mar" and "muro" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "muro 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 #69,109 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