PostvspotWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Post is a name, pot is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Post” is a name and “pot” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,966
“Post” frequency rank
#3,954
“pot” frequency rank
5920
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Post pot
Definition Nom de famille allemand, néerlandais. Vase de terre, verre, métal, plastique ou autre matière servant à divers usages.

Where the eye mixes Post and pot

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

4 ch
Post
3 ch
pot

Look-alike desk: Post vs pot

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Post is \pɔst\ while pot is \po\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5920, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Post is recorded at frequency rank #1,966, classified as aname, pronounced \pɔst\. pot is at rank #3,954, tagged as anoun, pronounced \po\.

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 5920, this pair ranks #427,676 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Post vs pot

Shared letters: opt. Private to "Post": s. Private to "pot": -.

"Post" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "pot" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Postopst · posst · postt · ppost · psot

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Post" and "pot" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Post" is a name and "pot" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Post" or "pot"?
"Post" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,966 in our French list, against #3,954 for "pot". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Post" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pot" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #427,676 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Post" and "pot" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pio vs pot". 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 #427,676 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