Which to use
“pon” and “pond” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #36,713
- “pon” frequency rank
- #7,374
- “pond” frequency rank
- 44087
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pon | pond |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A call for forming a set of three identical tiles using a discarded tile. | An inland body of standing water, either natural or man-made, that is smaller than a lake. |
Where the eye mixes pon and pond
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. pon runs 3 letters (CVC) against pond's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses pon with pond
A purely visual mix-up. pon (/pɒn/) and pond (/pɒnd/) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “pon” sits inside “pond”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44087, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pon is recorded at frequency rank #36,713, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɒn/. pond is at rank #7,374, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɒnd/.
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 44087, this pair ranks #233,832 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pon vs pond
Shared letters: nop. Private to "pon": -. Private to "pond": d.
"pon" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "pond" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- pond ← opnd · pnod · podn · pondd · ponnd · ppond
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pon" and "pond" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "pon" or "pond" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "pon" and "pond" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "pon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pond" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #233,832 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pon" and "pond" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pon vs PPA". 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 #233,832 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.