Which to use
“aggravation” and “aggregation” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #38,711
- “aggravation” frequency rank
- #20,827
- “aggregation” frequency rank
- 59538
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | aggravation | aggregation |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The act of aggravating, or making worse; used of evils, natural or moral; the act of increasing in severity or heinousness; something additional to a crime or wrong and enhancing its guilt or injurious consequences. | The act of collecting together, of aggregating. |
Where the eye mixes aggravation and aggregation
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between aggravation and aggregation
A purely visual mix-up. aggravation (/ˌæɡɹəˈveɪʃən/) and aggregation (/æɡɹəˈɡeɪʃən/) 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 59538, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
aggravation is recorded at frequency rank #38,711, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˌæɡɹəˈveɪʃən/. aggregation is at rank #20,827, tagged as anoun, pronounced /æɡɹəˈɡeɪʃən/.
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 59538, this pair ranks #105,550 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of aggravation vs aggregation
Shared letters: aginort. Private to "aggravation": v. Private to "aggregation": e.
"aggravation" · 11 letters · shape VCCCVCVCVVC · "aggregation" · 11 letters · shape VCCCVCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- aggravation ← aggarvation · aggraavtion · aggravaiton · aggravasion · aggravatino · aggravationn · aggravatoin · aggravattion
- aggregation ← aggergation · aggreagtion · aggregaiton · aggregasion · aggregatino · aggregationn · aggregatoin · aggregattion
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "aggravation" for "aggregation" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "aggravation" or "aggregation" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "aggravation" and "aggregation" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "aggravation" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "aggregation" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #105,550 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "aggravation" and "aggregation" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aggravating vs aggravation". 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 #105,550 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.