partvsportWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“part” and “port” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#162
“part” frequency rank
#1,913
“port” frequency rank
2075
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature part port
Definition A portion; a component. A place on the coast at which ships can shelter, or dock to load and unload cargo or passengers.

Where the eye mixes part and port

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

4 ch
part
4 ch
port

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. part (/pɑːt/) and port (/pɔːt/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - a in “part” becomes o in “port”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2075, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

part is recorded at frequency rank #162, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɑːt/. port is at rank #1,913, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɔːt/.

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 2075, this pair ranks #525,922 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of part vs port

Shared letters: prt. Private to "part": a. Private to "port": o.

"part" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "port" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • partaprt · parrt · partt · patr · ppart
  • portoprt · porrt · portt · potr · pport

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "part" and "port" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/pɑːt/ versus /pɔːt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "part" or "port"?
"part" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #162 in our English list, against #1,913 for "port". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list