# picking vs poking

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### picking
*verb · IPA /ˈpɪkɪŋ/ · frequency rank #3,383*
present participle and gerund of pick

### poking
*verb · IPA /ˈpəʊkɪŋ/ · frequency rank #16,997*
present participle and gerund of poke

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/picking-vs-poking