publicvsPulliConfusable pair

Quick tell: public is a adjective, Pulli is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“public” is an adjective and “Pulli” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,522
“public” frequency rank
#17,689
“Pulli” frequency rank
23211
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature public Pulli
Definition öffentlich Pullover oder Pullunder

Where the eye mixes public and Pulli

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
public
5 ch
Pulli

Visual trap between public and Pulli

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: public is [ˈpʌblɪk] while Pulli is [ˈpʊliː]. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23211, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

public is recorded at frequency rank #5,522, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈpʌblɪk]. Pulli is at rank #17,689, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈpʊliː].

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 23211, this pair ranks #1,864,309 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of public vs Pulli

Shared letters: ilpu. Private to "public": bc. Private to "Pulli": -.

"public" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Pulli" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • publicpbulic · ppublic · pubblic · pubilc · publci · publicc · publlic · pulbic
  • Pullipluli · ppulli · puli · pulil · uplli

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "public" for "Pulli" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "public" is an adjective and "Pulli" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "public" or "Pulli" show up more?
"public" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,522 in our German list, against #17,689 for "Pulli". 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 "public" and "Pulli" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "public" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Pulli" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,864,309 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "public" and "Pulli" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Pulli vs Pullis". 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 #1,864,309 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