Which to use
“pulled” is a verb and “pulley” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,172
- “pulled” frequency rank
- #32,139
- “pulley” frequency rank
- 34311
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pulled | pulley |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of pull | One of the simple machines; a sheave, a wheel with a grooved rim, in which a pulled rope or chain lifts an object (more useful when two or more pulleys are used together, as in a block and tackle arrangement, such that a small force moving through a greater distance can exert a larger force through a smaller distance). |
Where the eye mixes pulled and pulley
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between pulled and pulley
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pulled is /pʊld/ while pulley is /ˈpʊli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “pulled” becomes y in “pulley”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34311, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pulled is recorded at frequency rank #2,172, classified as averb, pronounced /pʊld/. pulley is at rank #32,139, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpʊli/.
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 34311, this pair ranks #321,909 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pulled vs pulley
Shared letters: elpu. Private to "pulled": d. Private to "pulley": y.
"pulled" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "pulley" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pulled" and "pulley" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "pulled" or "pulley" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "pulled" and "pulley" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "pulled" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pulley" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #321,909 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pulled" and "pulley" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pulley vs pulleys". 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 #321,909 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.