poresvspostsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#17,211
“pores” frequency rank
#2,265
“posts” frequency rank
19476
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pores posts
Definition plural of pore plural of post

Where the eye mixes pores and posts

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
pores
5 ch
posts

Visual trap between pores and posts

A purely visual mix-up. pores (/pɔɹz/) and posts (/pəʊsts/) 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 19476, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pores is recorded at frequency rank #17,211, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɔɹz/. posts is at rank #2,265, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pəʊsts/.

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 19476, this pair ranks #437,908 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pores vs posts

Shared letters: ops. Private to "pores": er. Private to "posts": t.

"pores" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "posts" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • poresopres · poers · poress · porres · ppores
  • postsopsts · possts · postss · postts · potss · pposts · psots

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pores" and "posts" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/pɔɹz/ versus /pəʊsts/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pores" vs "posts" - which ranks higher?
"posts" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,265 in our English list, against #17,211 for "pores". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pores" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "posts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #437,908 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pores" and "posts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poops vs pores". 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 #437,908 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