Which to use
“poked” is a verb and “posey” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #21,618
- “poked” frequency rank
- #32,129
- “posey” frequency rank
- 53747
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | poked | posey |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of poke | Pretentious; posturing. |
Letter map: poked vs posey
Shared letters muted; letters that set poked and posey apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. poked (CVCVC) and posey (CVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Grammar separator: poked vs posey
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: poked is averb and poseyanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53747, 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/. posey is at rank #32,129, tagged as anadj.
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 53747, this pair ranks #146,522 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of poked vs posey
Shared letters: eop. Private to "poked": dk. Private to "posey": sy.
"poked" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "posey" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "poked" and "posey" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "poked" or "posey" show up more?
After this comparison
Pair "poked" vs "posey" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "poked" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "posey" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #146,522 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "poked" and "posey" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Petey vs posey". 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 #146,522 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.