pullsvspuntsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#7,047
“pulls” frequency rank
#43,864
“punts” frequency rank
50911
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pulls punts
Definition plural of pull plural of punt

Where the eye mixes pulls and punts

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

5 ch
pulls
5 ch
punts

Look-alike desk: pulls vs punts

A purely visual mix-up. pulls (/pʊlz/) and punts (/pʌnts/) 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 50911, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pulls is recorded at frequency rank #7,047, classified as anoun, pronounced /pʊlz/. punts is at rank #43,864, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pʌnts/.

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 50911, this pair ranks #170,059 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pulls vs punts

Shared letters: psu. Private to "pulls": l. Private to "punts": nt.

"pulls" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "punts" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pullspluls · ppulls · pullss · pulsl · uplls
  • puntspnuts · ppunts · punnts · punst · puntss · puntts · putns · upnts

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pulls" and "punts" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/pʊlz/ versus /pʌnts/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pulls" or "punts"?
"pulls" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,047 in our English list, against #43,864 for "punts". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pulls" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "punts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #170,059 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pulls" and "punts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pacts vs punts". 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 #170,059 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