pooledvsportedWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“pooled” and “ported” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#29,792
“pooled” frequency rank
#27,602
“ported” frequency rank
57394
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pooled ported
Definition simple past and past participle of pool simple past and past participle of port

Where the eye mixes pooled and ported

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
pooled
6 ch
ported

Look-alike desk: pooled vs ported

A purely visual mix-up. pooled (/puːld/) and ported (/ˈpoɹ.tɪd/) 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 57394, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pooled is recorded at frequency rank #29,792, classified as averb, pronounced /puːld/. ported is at rank #27,602, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈpoɹ.tɪd/.

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 57394, this pair ranks #119,583 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pooled vs ported

Shared letters: deop. Private to "pooled": l. Private to "ported": rt.

"pooled" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "ported" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pooledopoled · poloed · pooeld · pooledd · poolled · ppooled
  • portedoprted · poretd · porrted · portde · portedd · portted · potred · pported

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pooled" for "ported" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/puːld/ versus /ˈpoɹ.tɪd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "pooled" or "ported" show up more?
"ported" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,602 in our English list, against #29,792 for "pooled". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pooled" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ported" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #119,583 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pooled" and "ported" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pooled vs pooper". 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 #119,583 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