Which to use
“maranhão” and “marinho” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,494
- “maranhão” frequency rank
- #6,087
- “marinho” frequency rank
- 9581
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maranhão | marinho |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | selvagem, montês, mui bravo | relativo ao mar |
Where the eye mixes maranhão and marinho
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. maranhão runs 8 letters (CVCVCCVV) against marinho's 7 (CVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses maranhão with marinho
A purely visual mix-up. maranhão (/ma.ɾa.'ɲoŋ/) and marinho (/mɐ.ˈɾi.ɲu/) 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 9581, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maranhão is recorded at frequency rank #3,494, classified as anadj, pronounced /ma.ɾa.'ɲoŋ/. marinho is at rank #6,087, tagged as anadj, pronounced /mɐ.ˈɾi.ɲu/.
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 9581, this pair ranks #63,800 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of maranhão vs marinho
Shared letters: ahmnor. Private to "maranhão": ã. Private to "marinho": i.
"maranhão" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVV · "marinho" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- marinho ← amrinho · mairnho · marihno · marinhho · marinnho · marinoh · marniho · marrinho
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "maranhão" and "marinho" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "maranhão" or "marinho" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "maranhão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "marinho" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #63,800 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maranhão" and "marinho" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "marinho vs Martino". 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 #63,800 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.