pollsvspullWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: polls is a noun, pull is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“polls” is a noun and “pull” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,081
“polls” frequency rank
#1,611
“pull” frequency rank
7692
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature polls pull
Definition plural of poll To apply a force to (an object) so that it comes toward the person or thing applying the force.

Letter map: polls vs pull

Shared letters muted; letters that set polls and pull apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
polls
4 ch
pull

Role in the sentence - polls and pull

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: polls is anoun and pullaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7692, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

polls is recorded at frequency rank #6,081, classified as anoun. pull is at rank #1,611, tagged as averb, pronounced /pʊl/.

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 7692, this pair ranks #505,999 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of polls vs pull

Shared letters: lp. Private to "polls": os. Private to "pull": u.

"polls" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "pull" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pollsoplls · plols · pollss · pols · polsl · ppolls
  • pullplul · ppull · pul · upll

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "polls" and "pull" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "polls" is a noun and "pull" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "polls" or "pull" show up more?
"pull" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,611 in our English list, against #6,081 for "polls". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "polls" and "pull".

  • Full dictionary entry for "polls" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pull" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #505,999 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "polls" and "pull" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Pallas vs polls". 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 #505,999 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list