Which to use
“poked” and “pooled” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #21,618
- “poked” frequency rank
- #29,792
- “pooled” frequency rank
- 51410
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | poked | pooled |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of poke | simple past and past participle of pool |
Where the eye mixes poked and pooled
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. poked runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against pooled's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: poked vs pooled
A purely visual mix-up. poked (/pəʊkt/) and pooled (/puːld/) 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 51410, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
poked is recorded at frequency rank #21,618, classified as averb, pronounced /pəʊkt/. pooled is at rank #29,792, tagged as averb, pronounced /puːld/.
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 51410, this pair ranks #165,756 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of poked vs pooled
Shared letters: deop. Private to "poked": k. Private to "pooled": l.
"poked" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "pooled" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "poked" and "pooled" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "poked" or "pooled"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "poked" and "pooled" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "poked" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pooled" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #165,756 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "poked" and "pooled" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pooled vs pooper". 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 #165,756 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.