# polished vs published

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### polished
*adjective · IPA /ˈpɑlɪʃt/ · frequency rank #10,256*
Made smooth or shiny by polishing.

### published
*verb · IPA /ˈpʌblɪʃt/ · frequency rank #913*
simple past and past participle of publish

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/polished-vs-published