postsvspoutWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: posts is a noun, pout is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“posts” is a noun and “pout” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,265
“posts” frequency rank
#35,889
“pout” frequency rank
38154
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature posts pout
Definition plural of post To push out one's lips.

Where the eye mixes posts and pout

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

5 ch
posts
4 ch
pout

Why the eye confuses posts with pout

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: posts is /pəʊsts/ while pout is /paʊt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38154, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

posts is recorded at frequency rank #2,265, classified as anoun, pronounced /pəʊsts/. pout is at rank #35,889, tagged as averb, pronounced /paʊt/.

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 38154, this pair ranks #288,386 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of posts vs pout

Shared letters: opt. Private to "posts": s. Private to "pout": u.

"posts" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "pout" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • postsopsts · possts · postss · postts · potss · pposts · psots
  • poutoput · potu · poutt · ppout · puot

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "posts" and "pout" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "posts" is a noun and "pout" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "posts" or "pout" show up more?
"posts" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,265 in our English list, against #35,889 for "pout". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "posts" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pout" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #288,386 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "posts" and "pout" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "piet vs pout". 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 #288,386 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