Which to use
“puffed” and “pulled” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,990
- “puffed” frequency rank
- #2,172
- “pulled” frequency rank
- 35162
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | puffed | pulled |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of puff | simple past and past participle of pull |
Where the eye mixes puffed and pulled
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: puffed vs pulled
A purely visual mix-up. puffed (/pʌft/) and pulled (/pʊld/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35162, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
puffed is recorded at frequency rank #32,990, classified as averb, pronounced /pʌft/. pulled is at rank #2,172, tagged as averb, pronounced /pʊld/.
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 35162, this pair ranks #314,367 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of puffed vs pulled
Shared letters: depu. Private to "puffed": f. Private to "pulled": l.
"puffed" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "pulled" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "puffed" for "pulled" ever safe?
Which is more common, "puffed" or "pulled"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "puffed" and "pulled" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "puffed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pulled" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #314,367 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "puffed" and "pulled" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puffed vs puffer". 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 #314,367 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.