Which to use
“portage” and “postage” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #29,043
- “portage” frequency rank
- #14,812
- “postage” frequency rank
- 43855
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | portage | postage |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An act of carrying, especially the carrying of a boat overland between two waterways. | The system of transporting letters, and parcels. |
Where the eye mixes portage and postage
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. portage and postage follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses portage with postage
A purely visual mix-up. portage (/ˈpɔː(ɹ)tɪd͡ʒ/) and postage (/ˈpəʊstɪd͡ʒ/) 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 - r in “portage” becomes s in “postage”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43855, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
portage is recorded at frequency rank #29,043, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɔː(ɹ)tɪd͡ʒ/. postage is at rank #14,812, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpəʊstɪd͡ʒ/.
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 43855, this pair ranks #236,063 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of portage vs postage
Shared letters: aegopt. Private to "portage": r. Private to "postage": s.
"portage" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "postage" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "portage" for "postage" ever safe?
Frequency check: "portage" vs "postage" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "portage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "postage" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #236,063 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "portage" and "postage" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "porta vs portage". 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 #236,063 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.