Which to use
“poi” and “point” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #35,882
- “poi” frequency rank
- #265
- “point” frequency rank
- 36147
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | poi | point |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The traditional staple food of Hawaii, made by baking and pounding the kalo (or taro) root, and reducing it to a thin paste, which is allowed to ferment. | A small dot or mark. |
Where the eye mixes poi and point
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. poi runs 3 letters (CVV) against point's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between poi and point
A purely visual mix-up. poi (/pɔɪ/) and point (/pɔɪnt/) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “poi” sits inside “point”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36147, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
poi is recorded at frequency rank #35,882, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɔɪ/. point is at rank #265, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɔɪnt/.
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 36147, this pair ranks #305,768 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of poi vs point
Shared letters: iop. Private to "poi": -. Private to "point": nt.
"poi" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "point" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- point ← opint · piont · poinnt · pointt · poitn · ponit · ppoint
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "poi" for "point" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "poi" or "point" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "poi" and "point" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "poi" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "point" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #305,768 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "poi" and "point" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poi vs PPA". 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 #305,768 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.