Which to use
“poised” is an adjective and “potted” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #16,560
- “poised” frequency rank
- #31,298
- “potted” frequency rank
- 47858
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | poised | potted |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Possessing poise, having self-confidence. | simple past and past participle of pot |
Letter map: poised vs potted
Shared letters muted; letters that set poised and potted apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. poised (CVVCVC) and potted (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Role in the sentence - poised and potted
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: poised is anadjective and pottedaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47858, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
poised is recorded at frequency rank #16,560, classified as anadj, pronounced /pɔɪzd/. potted is at rank #31,298, tagged as averb.
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 47858, this pair ranks #198,519 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of poised vs potted
Shared letters: deop. Private to "poised": is. Private to "potted": t.
"poised" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "potted" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "poised" for "potted" ever safe?
Frequency check: "poised" vs "potted" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "poised" and "potted".
- Full dictionary entry for "poised" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "potted" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #198,519 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "poised" and "potted" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Ponte vs potted". 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 #198,519 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.