Which to use
“competition” and “competitor” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,300
- “competition” frequency rank
- #9,453
- “competitor” frequency rank
- 10753
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | competition | competitor |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The action of competing. | A person or organization against whom one is competing. |
Where the eye mixes competition and competitor
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: competition vs competitor
A purely visual mix-up. competition (/ˌkɒm.pəˈtɪʃ.ən/) and competitor (/kəmˈpɛt.ɪ.tɚ/) 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 10753, 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/. competitor is at rank #9,453, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kəmˈpɛt.ɪ.tɚ/.
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 10753, this pair ranks #490,717 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of competition vs competitor
Shared letters: ceimopt. Private to "competition": n. Private to "competitor": r.
"competition" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVVC · "competitor" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- competition ← ccompetition · cmopetition · comeptition · commpetition · compeittion · competiiton · competision · competitino
- competitor ← ccompetitor · cmopetitor · comeptitor · commpetitor · compeittor · competiotr · competitorr · competitro
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "competition" for "competitor" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "competition" or "competitor" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "competition" and "competitor" 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 "competitor" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #490,717 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "competition" and "competitor" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "competition vs computation". 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 #490,717 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.