Which to use
“polled” and “pulled” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #21,621
- “polled” frequency rank
- #2,172
- “pulled” frequency rank
- 23793
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | polled | pulled |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of poll | simple past and past participle of pull |
Where the eye mixes polled and pulled
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: polled vs pulled
A purely visual mix-up. polled (/pəʊld/) and pulled (/pʊld/) 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 a single letter - o in “polled” becomes u in “pulled”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23793, 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/. pulled is at rank #2,172, tagged as averb, pronounced /pʊld/.
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 23793, this pair ranks #406,730 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of polled vs pulled
Shared letters: delp. Private to "polled": o. Private to "pulled": u.
"polled" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "pulled" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "polled" and "pulled" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "polled" or "pulled"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "polled" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pulled" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #406,730 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "polled" and "pulled" 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 #406,730 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.