mastrovsmestreWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#19,493
“mastro” frequency rank
#1,470
“mestre” frequency rank
20963
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mastro mestre
Definition haste sobre a qual se iça uma bandeira superior

Letter map: mastro vs mestre

Shared letters muted; letters that set mastro and mestre apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. mastro and mestre follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
mastro
6 ch
mestre

Role in the sentence - mastro and mestre

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mastro is anoun and mestreanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20963, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mastro is recorded at frequency rank #19,493, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmaʃ.tɾu/. mestre is at rank #1,470, 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 20963, this pair ranks #49,421 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mastro vs mestre

Shared letters: mrst. Private to "mastro": ao. Private to "mestre": e.

"mastro" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV  ·  "mestre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mastro ← amstro · masrto · masstro · mastor · mastrro · masttro · matsro · mmastro
  • mestre ← emstre · mesrte · messtre · mester · mestrre · mesttre · metsre · mmestre

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mastro" and "mestre" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mastro" is a noun and "mestre" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mastro" vs "mestre" - which ranks higher?
"mestre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,470 in our Portuguese list, against #19,493 for "mastro". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

You've compared "mastro" and "mestre". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mastro" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mestre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #49,421 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mastro" and "mestre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "messe vs mestre". 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 #49,421 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