poèmevspomWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“poème” and “pom” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#5,278
“poème” frequency rank
#23,981
“pom” frequency rank
29259
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature poème pom
Definition Ouvrage de littérature en vers. Anglais.

Where the eye mixes poème and pom

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. poème runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against pom's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
poème
3 ch
pom

Visual trap between poème and pom

A purely visual mix-up. poème (\pɔ.ɛm\) and pom (\pɒm\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29259, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

poème is recorded at frequency rank #5,278, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɔ.ɛm\. pom is at rank #23,981, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɒm\.

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 29259, this pair ranks #317,784 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of poème vs pom

Shared letters: mop. Private to "poème": eè. Private to "pom": -.

"poème" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "pom" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "poème" for "pom" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pɔ.ɛm\ versus \pɒm\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "poème" vs "pom" - which ranks higher?
"poème" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,278 in our French list, against #23,981 for "pom". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "poème" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pom" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #317,784 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "poème" and "pom" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pio vs pom". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #317,784 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list