marsvsmayoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#11,305
“mars” frequency rank
#30,251
“mayo” frequency rank
41556
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mars mayo
Definition março maio

Where the eye mixes mars and mayo

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

4 ch
mars
4 ch
mayo

Look-alike desk: mars vs mayo

A purely visual mix-up. mars (/maʁs/) and mayo (/ˈma.ʝo/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41556, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mars is recorded at frequency rank #11,305, classified as anoun, pronounced /maʁs/. mayo is at rank #30,251, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈma.ʝo/.

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 41556, this pair ranks #24,355 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mars vs mayo

Shared letters: am. Private to "mars": rs. Private to "mayo": oy.

"mars" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "mayo" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • marsamrs · marrs · marss · masr · mmars · mras
  • mayoamyo · maoy · mayyo · mmayo · myao

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mars" and "mayo" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/maʁs/ versus /ˈma.ʝo/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "mars" vs "mayo" - which ranks higher?
"mars" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,305 in our Portuguese list, against #30,251 for "mayo". 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 "mars" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mayo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #24,355 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mars" and "mayo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs mayo". 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 #24,355 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