Which to use
“plied” and “posed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,557
- “plied” frequency rank
- #9,510
- “posed” frequency rank
- 59067
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | plied | posed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of ply | simple past and past participle of pose |
Where the eye mixes plied and posed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses plied with posed
A purely visual mix-up. plied (/plaɪd/) and posed (/pəʊzd/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59067, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
plied is recorded at frequency rank #49,557, classified as averb, pronounced /plaɪd/. posed is at rank #9,510, tagged as averb, pronounced /pəʊzd/.
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 59067, this pair ranks #108,510 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of plied vs posed
Shared letters: dep. Private to "plied": il. Private to "posed": os.
"plied" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "posed" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "plied" and "posed" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "plied" or "posed"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "plied" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "posed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #108,510 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "plied" and "posed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "piet 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 #108,510 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.