Which to use
“champaign” and “champion” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #26,035
- “champaign” frequency rank
- #2,381
- “champion” frequency rank
- 28416
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | champaign | champion |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Open countryside, or an area of open countryside. | An ongoing winner in a game or contest. |
Where the eye mixes champaign and champion
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. champaign runs 9 letters (CCVCCVVCC) against champion's 8 (CCVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between champaign and champion
A purely visual mix-up. champaign (/ˈʃæmpeɪn/) and champion (/ˈt͡ʃæm.pi.ən/) 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 28416, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
champaign is recorded at frequency rank #26,035, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈʃæmpeɪn/. champion is at rank #2,381, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈt͡ʃæm.pi.ən/.
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 28416, this pair ranks #371,223 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of champaign vs champion
Shared letters: achimnp. Private to "champaign": g. Private to "champion": o.
"champaign" · 9 letters · shape CCVCCVVCC · "champion" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "champaign" for "champion" ever safe?
Frequency check: "champaign" vs "champion" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "champaign" and "champion" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "champaign" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "champion" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #371,223 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "champaign" and "champion" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "champaign vs Champlain". 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 #371,223 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.