porchvsporeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#8,970
“porch” frequency rank
#20,186
“pore” frequency rank
29156
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature porch pore
Definition A covered entrance to a building, whether taken from the interior, and forming a sort of vestibule within the main wall, or projecting without and with a separate roof. A porch often has chair(s), table(s) and swings. A tiny opening in the skin.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set porch and pore apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
porch
4 ch
pore

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. porch (/pɔːtʃ/) and pore (/pɔː(ɹ)/) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29156, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

porch is recorded at frequency rank #8,970, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɔːtʃ/. pore is at rank #20,186, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɔː(ɹ)/.

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 29156, this pair ranks #365,355 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of porch vs pore

Shared letters: opr. Private to "porch": ch. Private to "pore": e.

"porch" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "pore" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • porchoprch · pocrh · porcch · porchh · porhc · porrch · pporch · proch
  • poreopre · poer · porre · ppore · proe

Frequency comparison

porch#8,970
pore#20,186

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "porch" and "pore" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/pɔːtʃ/ versus /pɔː(ɹ)/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "porch" or "pore"?
"porch" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,970 in our English list, against #20,186 for "pore". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering porch vs pore

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “porch” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list