Which to use
“paste” and “pose” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,183
- “paste” frequency rank
- #6,084
- “pose” frequency rank
- 14267
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | paste | pose |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A soft moist mixture, in particular: | Common cold, head cold; catarrh. |
Where the eye mixes paste and pose
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: paste vs pose
A purely visual mix-up. paste (/peɪst/) and pose (/poʊz/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14267, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
paste is recorded at frequency rank #8,183, classified as anoun, pronounced /peɪst/. pose is at rank #6,084, tagged as anoun, pronounced /poʊz/.
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 14267, this pair ranks #471,060 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of paste vs pose
Shared letters: eps. Private to "paste": at. Private to "pose": o.
"paste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "pose" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "paste" for "pose" ever safe?
Frequency check: "paste" vs "pose" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "paste" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pose" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #471,060 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "paste" and "pose" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "paste vs pester". 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 #471,060 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.