matarvsmatizTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#1,053
“matar” frequency rank
#46,943
“matiz” frequency rank
47996
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature matar matiz
Definition causar morte, tirar a vida união de diversas cores mescladas com proporção

Where the eye mixes matar and matiz

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. matar and matiz follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
matar
5 ch
matiz

Visual trap between matar and matiz

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: matar is /mɐ.ˈtaɾ/ while matiz is /mɐ.ˈtiʃ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47996, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

matar is recorded at frequency rank #1,053, classified as averb, pronounced /mɐ.ˈtaɾ/. matiz is at rank #46,943, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mɐ.ˈtiʃ/.

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 47996, this pair ranks #17,229 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of matar vs matiz

Shared letters: amt. Private to "matar": r. Private to "matiz": iz.

"matar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "matiz" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • matar ← amtar · maatr · matarr · matra · mattar · mmatar · mtaar
  • matiz ← amtiz · maitz · matizz · mattiz · matzi · mmatiz · mtaiz

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "matar" and "matiz" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "matar" is a verb and "matiz" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "matar" or "matiz" show up more?
"matar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,053 in our Portuguese list, against #46,943 for "matiz". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "matar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "matiz" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #17,229 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "matar" and "matiz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "math 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 #17,229 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