pole
/pəʊl/
"pole" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pole” has 5 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #4,879. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #4,879
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 2, 2026) - Originally, a stick; now specifically, a long and slender piece of metal or (especially) wood, used for various construction or support purposes.
Corpus desk
Index EN-pole · pole · English
pole · rank #4,879 · 5 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #4,879
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH photograph
Nearest frequency peer: photograph (-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 neighbourhood for “pole”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- palm
palm
95,125 corpus weight
- Parker
Parker
95,124 corpus weight
- photograph
photograph
95,123 corpus weight
- pole
pole
95,122 corpus weight
- pub
pub
95,121 corpus weight
- quarters
quarters
95,120 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “pole” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | pole |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /pəʊl/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #4,879 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “pole” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around pole (IPA /pəʊl/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #4,879 among 4,417 “P” headwords. Wiktionary lists 10 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for pole, with forms such as "ople", "ploe", and "poel". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "pop", "pot", "pos", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From 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… The correct English form is pole, spelled P-O-L-E.
Definition
- 1Originally, a stick; now specifically, a long and slender piece of metal or (especially) wood, used for various construction or support purposes.
- 2A construction by which an animal is harnessed to a carriage.
- 3A type of basic fishing rod.
- 4A long sports implement used for pole-vaulting; now made of glassfiber or carbon fiber, formerly also metal, bamboo and wood have been used.
- 5A telescope used to identify birds, aeroplanes or wildlife.
- 6A unit of length, equal to a rod (¹⁄₄ chain or 5+¹⁄₂ yards).
- 7A pole position.
- 8A rifle.
- 9A penis.
- 10A wicket, especially in the context of the number of wickets taken by a particular bowler.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how pole appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
For a spell we done pretty well. Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand.
There she was, walking around with an IV pole, and we were only told that "Mommy isn't feeling so well, so she has to be connected to a special soda."
Etymology
From 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. Cognates Cognate with Scots pale, paill (“stake, pale”), North Frisian pul, pil (“stake, pale”), Saterland Frisian Pool (“pole”), West Frisian poal (“pole”), Dutch paal (“pole”), German Pfahl (“pile, stake, post, pole”), Danish pæl (“pole”), Swedish påle (“pole”), Icelandic páll (“hoe, spade, pale”), Old English fæc (“space of time, while, division, interval; lustrum”).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ople
- ploe
- poel
- polle
- ppole
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of pole - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 2, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "pole", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.