PopevspostTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#33,232
“Pope” frequency rank
#1,118
“post” frequency rank
34350
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Pope post
Definition Geistlicher einer orthodoxen Kirche 2. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs posen

Where the eye mixes Pope and post

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

4 ch
Pope
4 ch
post

Visual trap between Pope and post

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Pope is [ˈpoːpə] while post is [pɔʊ̯st]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34350, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Pope is recorded at frequency rank #33,232, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpoːpə]. post is at rank #1,118, tagged as averb, pronounced [pɔʊ̯st].

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 34350, this pair ranks #1,665,313 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Pope vs post

Shared letters: op. Private to "Pope": e. Private to "post": st.

"Pope" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "post" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Popeoppe · poep · poppe · ppoe · ppope
  • postopst · posst · postt · pots · ppost · psot

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Pope" for "post" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Pope" is a noun and "post" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Pope" or "post"?
"post" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,118 in our German list, against #33,232 for "Pope". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Pope" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "post" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,665,313 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Pope" and "post" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "PoC vs Pope". 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 #1,665,313 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