mayovsmuroWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#30,251
“mayo” frequency rank
#4,664
“muro” frequency rank
34915
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mayo muro
Definition maio construção comumente usada para separar terrenos

Where the eye mixes mayo and muro

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. mayo (CVVV) and muro (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
mayo
4 ch
muro

Visual trap between mayo and muro

A purely visual mix-up. mayo (/ˈma.ʝo/) and muro (/ˈmu.ɾu/) 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 34915, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mayo is recorded at frequency rank #30,251, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈma.ʝo/. muro is at rank #4,664, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmu.ɾu/.

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 34915, this pair ranks #32,232 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mayo vs muro

Shared letters: mo. Private to "mayo": ay. Private to "muro": ru.

"mayo" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "muro" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mayo ← amyo · maoy · mayyo · mmayo · myao
  • muro ← mmuro · mruo · muor · umro

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mayo" for "muro" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈma.ʝo/ versus /ˈmu.ɾu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "mayo" vs "muro" - which ranks higher?
"muro" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,664 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.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mayo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "muro" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #32,232 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mayo" and "muro" 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 #32,232 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