marcovsmortoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: marco is a noun, morto is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“marco” is a noun and “morto” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,754
“marco” frequency rank
#1,096
“morto” frequency rank
2850
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature marco morto
Definition sinal de demarcação que se põe nos limites territoriais que deixou de viver

Letter map: marco vs morto

Shared letters muted; letters that set marco and morto apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
marco
5 ch
morto

Grammar separator: marco vs morto

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: marco is anoun and mortoanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2850, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

marco is recorded at frequency rank #1,754, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmaɾ.ku/. morto is at rank #1,096, tagged as anadj.

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 2850, this pair ranks #72,401 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of marco vs morto

Shared letters: mor. Private to "marco": ac. Private to "morto": t.

"marco" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "morto" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • marcoamrco · macro · marcco · maroc · marrco · mmarco · mraco
  • mortommorto · morot · morrto · mortto · motro · mroto · omrto

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "marco" and "morto" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "marco" is a noun and "morto" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "marco" or "morto"?
"morto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,096 in our Portuguese list, against #1,754 for "marco". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "marco" and "morto".

  • Full dictionary entry for "marco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "morto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #72,401 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "marco" and "morto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "malho vs marco". 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 #72,401 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