poisevsPorteWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: poise is a noun, Porte is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“poise” is a noun and “Porte” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#27,600
“poise” frequency rank
#24,548
“Porte” frequency rank
52148
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature poise Porte
Definition A state of balance, equilibrium or stability. The Ottoman court; (hence), the government of the Ottoman empire.

Letter map: poise vs Porte

Shared letters muted; letters that set poise and Porte apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. poise (CVVCV) and Porte (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
poise
5 ch
Porte

Grammar separator: poise vs Porte

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: poise is anoun and Porteaname. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52148, 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/. Porte is at rank #24,548, tagged as aname.

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 52148, this pair ranks #159,480 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of poise vs Porte

Shared letters: eop. Private to "poise": is. Private to "Porte": rt.

"poise" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "Porte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • poise ← opise · piose · poies · poisse · posie · ppoise
  • Porte ← oprte · poret · porrte · portte · potre · pporte · prote

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "poise" for "Porte" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "poise" is a noun and "Porte" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "poise" or "Porte" show up more?
"Porte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,548 in our English list, against #27,600 for "poise". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "poise" and "Porte".

  • Full dictionary entry for "poise" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Porte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #159,480 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "poise" and "Porte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Porte vs pyrite". 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 #159,480 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list