PohlvspollWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Pohl is a name, poll is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Pohl” is a name and “poll” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#18,355
“Pohl” frequency rank
#38,341
“poll” frequency rank
56696
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Pohl poll
Definition deutscher Nachname, Familienname die Laus

Where the eye mixes Pohl and poll

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Pohl
4 ch
poll

Why the eye confuses Pohl with poll

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Pohl is [poːl] while poll is [poʎ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - h in “Pohl” becomes l in “poll”, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56696, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Pohl is recorded at frequency rank #18,355, classified as aname, pronounced [poːl]. poll is at rank #38,341, tagged as anoun, pronounced [poʎ].

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 56696, this pair ranks #930,139 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Pohl vs poll

Shared letters: lop. Private to "Pohl": h. Private to "poll": -.

"Pohl" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "poll" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Pohlophl · phol · pohhl · pohll · polh · ppohl
  • pollopll · plol · ppoll

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Pohl" and "poll" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Pohl" is a name and "poll" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Pohl" vs "poll" - which ranks higher?
"Pohl" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,355 in our German list, against #38,341 for "poll". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Pohl" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "poll" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #930,139 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Pohl" and "poll" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "PoC vs poll". 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 #930,139 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