poa
/ˈpoʊ.ə/
"poa" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“poa” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #40,840) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #40,840
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Any grass of the genus Poa, especially Poa annua.
Corpus desk
Index EN-poa · poa · English
poa · rank #40,840 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #40,840
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH plundering
Nearest frequency peer: plundering (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbours of confusable “poa”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- pissy
pissy
59,164 corpus weight
- plundering
plundering
59,162 corpus weight
- poa
poa
59,161 corpus weight
- polymorphism
polymorphism
59,160 corpus weight
- pontoon
pontoon
59,159 corpus weight
- postoperati…
postoperative
59,158 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “poa” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | poa |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpoʊ.ə/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #40,840 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “poa”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for poa is neighbouring look-alikes ("PP", "PR", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /ˈpoʊ.ə/. Frequency #40,840 among 4,417 “P” headwords. Gloss: "Any grass of the genus Poa, especially Poa annua.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for poa in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "PP", "PR", "pt", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From scientific Latin Poa (genus name), from Ancient Greek πόα (póa, “fodder”). The correct English form is poa, spelled P-O-A.
Definition
- 1Any grass of the genus Poa, especially Poa annua.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how poa appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
We trod out across fragile alpine heath between poa tussocks and something that smelled of lemon thyme.
Etymology
From scientific Latin Poa (genus name), from Ancient Greek πόα (póa, “fodder”).
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "poa", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).