mastervsmatarConfusable pair

Quick tell: master is a adjective, matar is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“master” is an adjective and “matar” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,446
“master” frequency rank
#1,053
“matar” frequency rank
7499
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature master matar
Definition principal causar morte, tirar a vida

Letter map: master vs matar

Shared letters muted; letters that set master and matar apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
master
5 ch
matar

Part-of-speech tell for master / matar

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: master is anadjective and mataraverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7499, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

master is recorded at frequency rank #6,446, classified as anadj. matar is at rank #1,053, tagged as averb, pronounced /mɐ.ˈtaɾ/.

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 7499, this pair ranks #66,622 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of master vs matar

Shared letters: amrt. Private to "master": es. Private to "matar": -.

"master" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "matar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • masteramster · masetr · masster · masterr · mastre · mastter · matser · mmaster
  • mataramtar · maatr · matarr · matra · mattar · mmatar · mtaar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "master" for "matar" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "master" is an adjective and "matar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "master" vs "matar" - which ranks higher?
"matar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,053 in our Portuguese list, against #6,446 for "master". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "master" vs "matar" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "master" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "matar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #66,622 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "master" and "matar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maa vs matar". 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 #66,622 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