Skip to main content
PlainSpell

pole

UK /pəʊl/noun, verb

pole is spelled P-O-L-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 17 times per million words in written English, the 4,838th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “pole vs poll” about 20 times a month (Bing, United States). As a noun, pole means “Originally, a stick; now specifically, a long and slender piece of metal or (especially) wood, used for various construction or support purposes” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of pole is poles.

How many letters and syllables are in pole?

Letters4: P-O-L-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing17 times per million words; the 4,838th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is pole?

Pole appears 17 times per million words in written English, the 4,838th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce pole?

  • UK /pəʊl/
  • UK [pʰɒʊɫ]
  • /pɒl/

Pole has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-pole.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with pole

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

pole vs poll20 B

Sounds like: poll (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with pole?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as pole from its last stressed vowel (/əʊl/, British pronunciation):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: lope, olpe.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of pole

  • poles plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • poling participle, present
  • poled participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does pole mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    Originally, a stick; now specifically, a long and slender piece of metal or (especially) wood, used for various construction or support purposes.

  2. 2

    A construction by which an animal is harnessed to a carriage.

  3. 3

    A type of basic fishing rod.

  4. 4

    A long sports implement used for pole-vaulting; now made of glassfiber or carbon fiber, formerly also metal, bamboo and wood have been used.

  5. 5

    slangA telescope used to identify birds, aeroplanes or wildlife.

  6. 6

    A unit of length, equal to a rod (¹⁄₄ chain or 5+¹⁄₂ yards).

  7. 7

    Ellipsis of pole position.

  8. 8

    USslangA rifle.

  9. 9

    Either of the two points on the earth's surface around which it rotates; also, similar points on any other rotating object.

  10. 10

    A point of magnetic focus, especially each of the two opposing such points of a magnet (designated north and south).

  11. 11

    Any of a small set of extremes; especially, either of two extremes that are possible or available.

    In discussing alternatives to the polar extremes, Professor Nguyen mentioned two poles of a filthy floor versus a sterile surgical site.

  12. 12

    A fixed point relative to other points or lines.

  13. 13

    A contact on an electrical device (such as a battery) at which electric current enters or leaves.

  14. 14

    For a meromorphic function f(z), any point a for which f(z)→∞ as z→a.

    The function f(z)#61;#92;frac#123;1#125;#123;z-3#125; has a single pole at z#61;3.

  15. 15

    obsoleteThe firmament; the sky.

  16. 16

    Either of the states that characterize a bipolar disorder.

verb

  1. 1

    To propel by pushing with poles, to push with a pole.

    Huck Finn poled that raft southward down the Mississippi because going northward against the current was too much work.

  2. 2

    To identify something quite precisely using a telescope.

    He poled off the serial of the Gulfstream to confirm its identity.

  3. 3

    To furnish with poles for support.

    to pole beans or hops

  4. 4

    To convey on poles.

    to pole hay into a barn

  5. 5

    To stir, as molten glass, with a pole.

  6. 6

    To strike (the ball) very hard.

  7. 7

    To treat (copper) by blowing natural gas or other reducing agent through the molten oxide, burning off the oxygen.

    to pole copper

  8. 8

    To induce piezoelectricity in (a substance) by aligning the dipoles.

noun

as Pole
  1. 1

    A person from Poland or of Polish descent.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate pole?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of pole: po..

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Pole in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchperche (long and slender object for construction or…), pôle (extreme of an axis), Polonais, Polonaise (person from Poland)
GermanStab, Stange (long and slender object for construction or…), Pol (extreme of an axis), Pole, Polin (person from Poland), Polstelle (isolated point of a meromorphic function…)
Portuguesevara (long and slender object for construction or…), polo, extremidade (extreme of an axis), polonês (person from Poland), caniço (type of fishing rod), varear (propel by pushing with poles)
Spanishpalo, garrocha, vara, pértiga, pertigal (long and slender object for construction or…), polo (extreme of an axis)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does pole come from?

English poleFrom Middle English pole, pal, from Old English pāl (“a pole, stake, post; a kind of hoe or spade”), from Proto-West Germanic *pāl (“pole”), from Latin pālus (“stake, pale, prop, stay”), perhaps from Old Latin *paxlos, from Proto-Italic *pākslos, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ǵ- (“to nail, fasten”). Doublet of peel, pale, and palus.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after pole