pickvsPoCWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#14,895
“pick” frequency rank
#49,161
“PoC” frequency rank
64056
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pick PoC
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs picken Person of Color

Where the eye mixes pick and PoC

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
pick
3 ch
PoC

Why the eye confuses pick with PoC

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pick is [pɪk] while PoC is [piːʔɔʊ̯ˈsiː]. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64056, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pick is recorded at frequency rank #14,895, classified as averb, pronounced [pɪk]. PoC is at rank #49,161, tagged as anoun, pronounced [piːʔɔʊ̯ˈsiː].

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 64056, this pair ranks #654,922 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pick vs PoC

Shared letters: cp. Private to "pick": ik. Private to "PoC": o.

"pick" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "PoC" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pickipck · pcik · picck · pickk · pikc · ppick

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pick" for "PoC" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pick" is a verb and "PoC" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "pick" or "PoC" show up more?
"pick" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,895 in our German list, against #49,161 for "PoC". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pick" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "PoC" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #654,922 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pick" and "PoC" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "PMS vs PoC". 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 #654,922 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list