Which to use
“polled” and “poured” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #21,621
- “polled” frequency rank
- #9,381
- “poured” frequency rank
- 31002
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | polled | poured |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of poll | simple past and past participle of pour |
Where the eye mixes polled and poured
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses polled with poured
A purely visual mix-up. polled (/pəʊld/) and poured (/pɔːd/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31002, 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/. poured is at rank #9,381, tagged as averb, pronounced /pɔːd/.
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 31002, this pair ranks #349,872 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of polled vs poured
Shared letters: deop. Private to "polled": l. Private to "poured": ru.
"polled" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "poured" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "polled" and "poured" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "polled" or "poured"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "polled" and "poured" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "polled" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "poured" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #349,872 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "polled" and "poured" 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 #349,872 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.