Which to use
“poise” and “police” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #27,600
- “poise” frequency rank
- #471
- “police” frequency rank
- 28071
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | poise | police |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A state of balance, equilibrium or stability. | A constituted body of officers representing the civil authority of government, empowered to maintain public order and safety, enforce the law, and prevent, detect, and investigate crime. |
Where the eye mixes poise and police
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. poise (/pɔɪz/) and police (/pəˈliːs/) 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 28071, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
poise is recorded at frequency rank #27,600, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɔɪz/. police is at rank #471, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pəˈliːs/.
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 28071, this pair ranks #373,966 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of poise vs police
Shared letters: eiop. Private to "poise": s. Private to "police": cl.
"poise" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "police" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV