Which to use
“phased” is a verb and “poised” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #18,916
- “phased” frequency rank
- #16,560
- “poised” frequency rank
- 35476
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | phased | poised |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of phase | Possessing poise, having self-confidence. |
Where the eye mixes phased and poised
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. phased (CCVCVC) and poised (CVVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: phased vs poised
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: phased is /feɪzd/ while poised is /pɔɪzd/. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35476, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
phased is recorded at frequency rank #18,916, classified as averb, pronounced /feɪzd/. poised is at rank #16,560, tagged as anadj, pronounced /pɔɪzd/.
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 35476, this pair ranks #311,600 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of phased vs poised
Shared letters: deps. Private to "phased": ah. Private to "poised": io.
"phased" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "poised" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "phased" and "poised" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "phased" or "poised"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "phased" and "poised" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "phased" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "poised" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #311,600 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "phased" and "poised" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plied vs poised". 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 #311,600 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.