pólenvspoteConfusable pair

Which to use

“pólen” and “pote” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#25,112
“pólen” frequency rank
#10,588
“pote” frequency rank
35700
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pólen pote
Definition pó (micrósporos) contido nos sacos polínicos das espermatófitas cântaro grande para líquidos

Where the eye mixes pólen and pote

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. pólen runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against pote's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
pólen
4 ch
pote

Look-alike desk: pólen vs pote

A purely visual mix-up. pólen (/ˈpɔ.lɛn/) and pote (/ˈpɔ.tɨ/) 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 35700, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pólen is recorded at frequency rank #25,112, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɔ.lɛn/. pote is at rank #10,588, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɔ.tɨ/.

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 35700, this pair ranks #31,316 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pólen vs pote

Shared letters: ep. Private to "pólen": lnó. Private to "pote": ot.

"pólen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "pote" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pote ← opte · poet · potte · ppote · ptoe

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pólen" for "pote" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpɔ.lɛn/ versus /ˈpɔ.tɨ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "pólen" or "pote" show up more?
"pote" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,588 in our Portuguese list, against #25,112 for "pólen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pólen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pote" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #31,316 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pólen" and "pote" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Poland vs pólen". 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 #31,316 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list