marinhovsmoinhoTell them apart

Quick tell: marinho is a adjective, moinho is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#6,087
“marinho” frequency rank
#10,401
“moinho” frequency rank
16488
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature marinho moinho
Definition relativo ao mar engenho para moer cereais

Where the eye mixes marinho and moinho

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. marinho runs 7 letters (CVCVCCV) against moinho's 6 (CVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
marinho
6 ch
moinho

Visual trap between marinho and moinho

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: marinho is /mɐ.ˈɾi.ɲu/ while moinho is /mu.ˈi.ɲu/ [muˈiɲu], [ˈmu̯iɲu]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16488, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

marinho is recorded at frequency rank #6,087, classified as anadj, pronounced /mɐ.ˈɾi.ɲu/. moinho is at rank #10,401, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mu.ˈi.ɲu/ [muˈiɲu], [ˈmu̯iɲu].

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 16488, this pair ranks #55,022 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of marinho vs moinho

Shared letters: himno. Private to "marinho": ar. Private to "moinho": -.

"marinho" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "moinho" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • marinho ← amrinho · mairnho · marihno · marinhho · marinnho · marinoh · marniho · marrinho
  • moinho ← mionho · mmoinho · moihno · moinhho · moinnho · moinoh · moniho · ominho

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "marinho" for "moinho" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "marinho" is an adjective and "moinho" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "marinho" vs "moinho" - which ranks higher?
"marinho" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,087 in our Portuguese list, against #10,401 for "moinho". 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 "marinho" and "moinho" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "marinho" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "moinho" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #55,022 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "marinho" and "moinho" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mogno vs moinho". 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 #55,022 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