Which to use
“pore” and “port” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,186
- “pore” frequency rank
- #1,913
- “port” frequency rank
- 22099
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pore | port |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A tiny opening in the skin. | A place on the coast at which ships can shelter, or dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. |
Where the eye mixes pore and port
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. pore (/pɔː(ɹ)/) and port (/pɔːt/) 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 - e in “pore” becomes t in “port”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22099, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pore is recorded at frequency rank #20,186, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɔː(ɹ)/. port is at rank #1,913, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɔːt/.
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 22099, this pair ranks #419,101 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of pore vs port
Shared letters: opr. Private to "pore": e. Private to "port": t.
"pore" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "port" · 4 letters · shape CVCC