marévsmatemConfusable pair

Quick tell: maré is a noun, matem is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“maré” is a noun and “matem” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,659
“maré” frequency rank
#18,638
“matem” frequency rank
26297
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maré matem
Definition movimento periódico de subida e descida das águas do mar terceira pessoa do plural do presente do modo subjuntivo do verbo matar

Where the eye mixes maré and matem

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

4 ch
maré
5 ch
matem

Look-alike desk: maré vs matem

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: maré is /mɐ.ˈɾɛ/ while matem is /ˈma.tẽɲ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26297, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maré is recorded at frequency rank #7,659, classified as anoun, pronounced /mɐ.ˈɾɛ/. matem is at rank #18,638, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈma.tẽɲ/.

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 26297, this pair ranks #42,889 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of maré vs matem

Shared letters: am. Private to "maré": . Private to "matem": et.

"maré" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "matem" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • matemamtem · maetm · matemm · matme · mattem · mmatem · mtaem

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "maré" and "matem" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "maré" is a noun and "matem" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "maré" or "matem" show up more?
"maré" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,659 in our Portuguese list, against #18,638 for "matem". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "maré" and "matem" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "maré" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "matem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #42,889 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maré" and "matem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "matem vs matiz". 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 #42,889 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