Which to use
“companies” and “companion” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #672
- “companies” frequency rank
- #5,772
- “companion” frequency rank
- 6444
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | companies | companion |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of company | A friend, acquaintance, or partner; someone with whom one spends time or accompanies |
Where the eye mixes companies and companion
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. companies and companion follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses companies with companion
A purely visual mix-up. companies (/ˈkʌmpəniz/) and companion (/kəmˈpæn.jən/) 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 6444, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
companies is recorded at frequency rank #672, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkʌmpəniz/. companion is at rank #5,772, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kəmˈpæn.jən/.
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 6444, this pair ranks #511,398 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of companies vs companion
Shared letters: acimnop. Private to "companies": es. Private to "companion": -.
"companies" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVVC · "companion" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "companies" for "companion" ever safe?
Frequency check: "companies" vs "companion" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "companies" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "companion" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #511,398 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "companies" and "companion" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "companies vs complies". 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 #511,398 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.