Which to use
“affection” and “affections” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,003
- “affection” frequency rank
- #26,320
- “affections” frequency rank
- 34323
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | affection | affections |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The act of affecting or acting upon. | plural of affection |
Where the eye mixes affection and affections
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses affection with affections
A purely visual mix-up. affection (/əˈfɛk.ʃən/) and affections (/əˈfɛkʃənz/) 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 extra letter(s) - “affection” sits inside “affections”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34323, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
affection is recorded at frequency rank #8,003, classified as anoun, pronounced /əˈfɛk.ʃən/. affections is at rank #26,320, tagged as anoun, pronounced /əˈfɛkʃənz/.
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 34323, this pair ranks #321,813 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of affection vs affections
Shared letters: acefinot. Private to "affection": -. Private to "affections": s.
"affection" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVVC · "affections" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- affection ← afection · afefction · affcetion · affecction · affeciton · affecsion · affectino · affectionn
- affections ← afections · afefctions · affcetions · affecctions · affecitons · affectinos · affectionns · affectionss
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "affection" and "affections" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "affection" vs "affections" - which ranks higher?
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 "affection" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "affections" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #321,813 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "affection" and "affections" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "affection vs affective". 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 #321,813 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.