pubesvspukeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#42,838
“pubes” frequency rank
#20,193
“puke” frequency rank
63031
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pubes puke
Definition plural of pubis (“pubic bones”) vomit.

Where the eye mixes pubes and puke

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

5 ch
pubes
4 ch
puke

Visual trap between pubes and puke

A purely visual mix-up. pubes (/ˈpjuːbiːz/) and puke (/pjuːk/) 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 63031, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pubes is recorded at frequency rank #42,838, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpjuːbiːz/. puke is at rank #20,193, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pjuːk/.

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 63031, this pair ranks #85,249 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pubes vs puke

Shared letters: epu. Private to "pubes": bs. Private to "puke": k.

"pubes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "puke" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pubespbues · ppubes · pubbes · pubess · pubse · puebs · upbes
  • pukepkue · ppuke · puek · pukke · upke

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pubes" for "puke" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpjuːbiːz/ versus /pjuːk/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pubes" or "puke"?
"puke" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,193 in our English list, against #42,838 for "pubes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pubes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "puke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #85,249 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pubes" and "puke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plies vs pubes". 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 #85,249 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