poliertvspostiertTell them apart

Quick tell: poliert is a adjective, postiert is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“poliert” is an adjective and “postiert” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,806
“poliert” frequency rank
#48,392
“postiert” frequency rank
77198
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature poliert postiert
Definition durch Reiben glänzend gemacht 2. Person Plural Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs postieren

Where the eye mixes poliert and postiert

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. poliert runs 7 letters (CVCVVCC) against postiert's 8 (CVCCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
poliert
8 ch
postiert

Look-alike desk: poliert vs postiert

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: poliert is [poˈliːɐ̯t] while postiert is [pɔsˈtiːɐ̯t]. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77198, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

poliert is recorded at frequency rank #28,806, classified as anadj, pronounced [poˈliːɐ̯t]. postiert is at rank #48,392, tagged as averb, pronounced [pɔsˈtiːɐ̯t].

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 77198, this pair ranks #266,248 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of poliert vs postiert

Shared letters: eioprt. Private to "poliert": l. Private to "postiert": s.

"poliert" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC  ·  "postiert" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • poliert ← opliert · ploiert · poilert · poleirt · polierrt · poliertt · polietr · poliret
  • postiert ← opstiert · positert · posstiert · posteirt · postierrt · postiertt · postietr · postiret

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "poliert" for "postiert" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "poliert" is an adjective and "postiert" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "poliert" or "postiert" show up more?
"poliert" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,806 in our German list, against #48,392 for "postiert". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "poliert" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "postiert" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #266,248 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "poliert" and "postiert" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pointiert vs postiert". 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 #266,248 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