matariavsmaterialWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: mataria is a verb, material is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#25,042
“mataria” frequency rank
#1,120
“material” frequency rank
26162
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mataria material
Definition primeira e terceira pessoa do singular do futuro do pretérito do verbo matar relativo à matéria

Where the eye mixes mataria and material

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
mataria
8 ch
material

Why the eye confuses mataria with material

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mataria is /ma.ta.ˈɾi.ɐ/ while material is /ma.te.ɾi.ˈaw/. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26162, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mataria is recorded at frequency rank #25,042, classified as averb, pronounced /ma.ta.ˈɾi.ɐ/. material is at rank #1,120, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ma.te.ɾi.ˈaw/.

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 26162, this pair ranks #43,026 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mataria vs material

Shared letters: aimrt. Private to "mataria": -. Private to "material": el.

"mataria" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV  ·  "material" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • matariaamtaria · maatria · mataira · matarai · matarria · matraia · mattaria · mmataria
  • materialamterial · maetrial · mateiral · materail · materiall · materila · materrial · matreial

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mataria" and "material" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mataria" is a verb and "material" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mataria" vs "material" - which ranks higher?
"material" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,120 in our Portuguese list, against #25,042 for "mataria". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "mataria" and "material" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mataria" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "material" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #43,026 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mataria" and "material" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Maiara vs mataria". 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 #43,026 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