Which to use
“ambition” is a noun and “ambitious” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,116
- “ambition” frequency rank
- #7,644
- “ambitious” frequency rank
- 15760
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ambition | ambitious |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Eager or inordinate desire for some object that confers distinction, as preferment, honor, superiority, political power, or fame; desire to distinguish one's self from other people. | Having or showing ambition; wanting a lot of power, honor, respect, superiority, or other distinction. |
Where the eye mixes ambition and ambitious
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ambition is /æmˈbɪʃ.ən/ while ambitious is /æmˈbɪʃ.əs/. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15760, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ambition is recorded at frequency rank #8,116, classified as anoun, pronounced /æmˈbɪʃ.ən/. ambitious is at rank #7,644, tagged as anadj, pronounced /æmˈbɪʃ.əs/.
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 15760, this pair ranks #461,972 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of ambition vs ambitious
Shared letters: abimot. Private to "ambition": n. Private to "ambitious": su.
"ambition" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVVC · "ambitious" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVVVC