PolvsprobWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#5,751
“Pol” frequency rank
#47,655
“prob” frequency rank
53406
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Pol prob
Definition einer der beiden Endpunkte der Erdachse; auch bei anderen Himmelskörpern, die sich um die eigene Achse drehen; oder auch von der Erde (ggf. auch von einem anderen Himmelskörper) aus gesehen, der nördliche/südliche Himmelspol 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs proben

Where the eye mixes Pol and prob

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

3 ch
Pol
4 ch
prob

Look-alike desk: Pol vs prob

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Pol is [poːl] while prob is [pʁoːp]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53406, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Pol is recorded at frequency rank #5,751, classified as anoun, pronounced [poːl]. prob is at rank #47,655, tagged as averb, pronounced [pʁoːp].

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 53406, this pair ranks #1,059,260 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Pol vs prob

Shared letters: op. Private to "Pol": l. Private to "prob": br.

"Pol" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "prob" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • probporb · pprob · prbo · probb · prrob · rpob

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Pol" and "prob" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Pol" is a noun and "prob" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Pol" or "prob"?
"Pol" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,751 in our German list, against #47,655 for "prob". 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 "Pol" and "prob" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Pol" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prob" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,059,260 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Pol" and "prob" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "PoC vs prob". 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 #1,059,260 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