Which to use
“police” and “polis” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,809
- “police” frequency rank
- #21,440
- “polis” frequency rank
- 54249
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | police | polis |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Policía. | Denominación dada a las ciudades-estado independientes de la antigua Grecia, surgidas en la Edad Oscura mediante un proceso de agregación de núcleos y grupos de población (anteriormente vinculados por el oikos o casa) denominado sinecismo. |
Where the eye mixes police and polis
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: police vs polis
A purely visual mix-up. police (/pəˈliːs/) and polis ([ˈpolis]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54249, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
police is recorded at frequency rank #32,809, classified as anoun, pronounced /pəˈliːs/. polis is at rank #21,440, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈpolis].
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 54249, this pair ranks #84,161 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of police vs polis
Shared letters: ilop. Private to "police": ce. Private to "polis": s.
"police" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "polis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "police" and "polis" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "police" vs "polis" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "police" and "polis" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "police" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "polis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #84,161 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "police" and "polis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "polis vs ponías". 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 #84,161 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.