portvsptWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,913
“port” frequency rank
#6,726
“pt” frequency rank
8639
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature port pt
Definition A place on the coast at which ships can shelter, or dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Initialism of physical training, a physical education class in grade school.

Letter map: port vs pt

Shared letters muted; letters that set port and pt apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
port
2 ch
pt

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

port and pt are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8639, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

port is recorded at frequency rank #1,913, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɔːt/. pt is at rank #6,726, tagged as anoun.

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 8639, this pair ranks #501,488 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of port vs pt

Shared letters: pt. Private to "port": or. Private to "pt": -.

"port" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "pt" · 2 letters · shape CC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • portoprt · porrt · portt · potr · pport

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "port" and "pt" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "port" or "pt"?
"port" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,913 in our English list, against #6,726 for "pt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list