Which to use
“posed” and “poured” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,510
- “posed” frequency rank
- #9,381
- “poured” frequency rank
- 18891
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | posed | poured |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of pose | simple past and past participle of pour |
Where the eye mixes posed and poured
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between posed and poured
A purely visual mix-up. posed (/pəʊzd/) and poured (/pɔːd/) 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 18891, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
posed is recorded at frequency rank #9,510, classified as averb, pronounced /pəʊzd/. poured is at rank #9,381, tagged as averb, pronounced /pɔːd/.
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 18891, this pair ranks #441,907 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of posed vs poured
Shared letters: deop. Private to "posed": s. Private to "poured": ru.
"posed" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "poured" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "posed" for "poured" ever safe?
Frequency check: "posed" vs "poured" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "posed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "poured" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #441,907 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "posed" and "poured" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plied vs posed". 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 #441,907 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.