Which to use
“poke” is a verb and “pope” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #13,037
- “poke” frequency rank
- #3,776
- “pope” frequency rank
- 16813
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | poke | pope |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To prod or jab with an object such as a finger or a stick. | An honorary title of the Roman Catholic bishop of Rome as father and head of his church, a sovereign of the Vatican city state. |
Where the eye mixes poke and pope
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between poke and pope
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: poke is /pəʊk/ while pope is /pəʊp/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - k in “poke” becomes p in “pope”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16813, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
poke is recorded at frequency rank #13,037, classified as averb, pronounced /pəʊk/. pope is at rank #3,776, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pəʊp/.
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 16813, this pair ranks #455,416 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of poke vs pope
Shared letters: eop. Private to "poke": k. Private to "pope": -.
"poke" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "pope" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "poke" for "pope" ever safe?
Frequency check: "poke" vs "pope" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "poke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pope" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #455,416 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "poke" and "pope" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poke vs Pyke". 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 #455,416 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.