Which to use
“pled” and “poked” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #40,395
- “pled” frequency rank
- #21,618
- “poked” frequency rank
- 62013
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pled | poked |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of plead | simple past and past participle of poke |
Where the eye mixes pled and poked
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. pled runs 4 letters (CCVC) against poked's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between pled and poked
A purely visual mix-up. pled (/plɛd/) and poked (/pəʊkt/) 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 62013, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pled is recorded at frequency rank #40,395, classified as averb, pronounced /plɛd/. poked is at rank #21,618, tagged as averb, pronounced /pəʊkt/.
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 62013, this pair ranks #90,878 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of pled vs poked
Shared letters: dep. Private to "pled": l. Private to "poked": ko.
"pled" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "poked" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "pled" and "poked" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "pled" or "poked" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "pled" and "poked" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "pled" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "poked" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #90,878 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pled" and "poked" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pled vs plied". 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 #90,878 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.