pubsvspullsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#13,792
“pubs” frequency rank
#7,047
“pulls” frequency rank
20839
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pubs pulls
Definition plural of pub plural of pull

Where the eye mixes pubs and pulls

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

4 ch
pubs
5 ch
pulls

Visual trap between pubs and pulls

A purely visual mix-up. pubs (/pʌbz/) and pulls (/pʊlz/) 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 20839, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pubs is recorded at frequency rank #13,792, classified as anoun, pronounced /pʌbz/. pulls is at rank #7,047, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pʊlz/.

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 20839, this pair ranks #428,290 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pubs vs pulls

Shared letters: psu. Private to "pubs": b. Private to "pulls": l.

"pubs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "pulls" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pubspbus · ppubs · pubbs · pubss · pusb · upbs
  • pullspluls · ppulls · pullss · pulsl · uplls

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pubs" and "pulls" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/pʌbz/ versus /pʊlz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pubs" or "pulls"?
"pulls" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,047 in our English list, against #13,792 for "pubs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "pubs" and "pulls" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pubs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pulls" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #428,290 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pubs" and "pulls" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pecs vs pubs". 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 #428,290 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