Which to use
“polled” is a verb and “pollen” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #21,621
- “polled” frequency rank
- #15,680
- “pollen” frequency rank
- 37301
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | polled | pollen |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of poll | A fine, granular substance produced in flowers. |
Where the eye mixes polled and pollen
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: polled vs pollen
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: polled is /pəʊld/ while pollen is /ˈpɒlən/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “polled” becomes n in “pollen”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37301, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
polled is recorded at frequency rank #21,621, classified as averb, pronounced /pəʊld/. pollen is at rank #15,680, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɒlən/.
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 37301, this pair ranks #295,762 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of polled vs pollen
Shared letters: elop. Private to "polled": d. Private to "pollen": n.
"polled" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "pollen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "polled" and "pollen" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "polled" or "pollen" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "polled" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pollen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #295,762 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "polled" and "pollen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plied vs polled". 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 #295,762 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.