polisvspostsConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#20,239
“polis” frequency rank
#15,215
“posts” frequency rank
35454
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature polis posts
Definition Dans la Grèce antique, cité-État composée d’une communauté de citoyens libres et autonomes. Pluriel de post.

Where the eye mixes polis and posts

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
polis
5 ch
posts

Look-alike desk: polis vs posts

A purely visual mix-up. polis (\po.lis\) and posts (\pɔst\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35454, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

polis is recorded at frequency rank #20,239, classified as anoun, pronounced \po.lis\. posts is at rank #15,215, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔst\.

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 35454, this pair ranks #276,650 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of polis vs posts

Shared letters: ops. Private to "polis": il. Private to "posts": t.

"polis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "posts" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • polisoplis · plois · poliss · pollis · polsi · ppolis
  • postsopsts · possts · postss · postts · pposts · psots

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "polis" and "posts" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\po.lis\ versus \pɔst\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "polis" or "posts" show up more?
"posts" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,215 in our French list, against #20,239 for "polis". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "polis" and "posts" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "polis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "posts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #276,650 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "polis" and "posts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "palin vs polis". 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 #276,650 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