Which to use
“competition” is a noun and “competitive” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,300
- “competition” frequency rank
- #2,620
- “competitive” frequency rank
- 3920
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | competition | competitive |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The action of competing. | Of or pertaining to competition. |
Where the eye mixes competition and competitive
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: competition vs competitive
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: competition is /ˌkɒm.pəˈtɪʃ.ən/ while competitive is /kəmˈpɛtɪtɪv/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3920, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
competition is recorded at frequency rank #1,300, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˌkɒm.pəˈtɪʃ.ən/. competitive is at rank #2,620, tagged as anadj, pronounced /kəmˈpɛtɪtɪv/.
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 3920, this pair ranks #520,572 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of competition vs competitive
Shared letters: ceimopt. Private to "competition": n. Private to "competitive": v.
"competition" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVVC · "competitive" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- competition ← ccompetition · cmopetition · comeptition · commpetition · compeittion · competiiton · competision · competitino
- competitive ← ccompetitive · cmopetitive · comeptitive · commpetitive · compeittive · competiitve · competitiev · competitivve
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "competition" and "competitive" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "competition" vs "competitive" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "competition" and "competitive" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "competition" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "competitive" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #520,572 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "competition" and "competitive" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "competitive vs competitively". 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 #520,572 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.