overwordExplorer
PORTUGUESE · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

mau.

bad

3 characters1 syllables approx.Português language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈmaw/Brazil[ˈmaʊ̯]Brazil/ˈmaw/Portugal

  1. bad

    comparable
    Ele é um mau condutor.
    Ela tem maus hábitos.

  2. evil, wicked

    comparable
    Caim era mau.

  3. harmful

    comparable
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese mao, from Latin malus, from Proto-Italic. Cognate with Galician mao and Spanish malo.

noun/ˈmaw/Brazil[ˈmaʊ̯]Brazil/ˈmaw/Portugal

  1. a bad person

    masculine
    Junta-te aos bons e serás melhor que eles; junta-te aos maus e serás pior que eles.
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese mao, from Latin malus, from Proto-Italic. Cognate with Galician mao and Spanish malo.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.