concedesvsconcernsTell them apart

Quick tell: concedes is a verb, concerns is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“concedes” is a verb and “concerns” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,184
“concedes” frequency rank
#2,522
“concerns” frequency rank
35706
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature concedes concerns
Definition third-person singular simple present indicative of concede plural of concern

Where the eye mixes concedes and concerns

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. concedes (CVCCVCVC) and concerns (CVCCVCCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
concedes
8 ch
concerns

Visual trap between concedes and concerns

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: concedes is /kənˈsiːdz/ while concerns is /kənˈsɝnz/. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35706, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

concedes is recorded at frequency rank #33,184, classified as averb, pronounced /kənˈsiːdz/. concerns is at rank #2,522, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kənˈsɝnz/.

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 35706, this pair ranks #309,613 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of concedes vs concerns

Shared letters: cenos. Private to "concedes": d. Private to "concerns": r.

"concedes" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC  ·  "concerns" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • concedes ← cconcedes · cnocedes · cocnedes · conccedes · concdees · conceddes · concedess · concedse
  • concerns ← cconcerns · cnocerns · cocnerns · conccerns · concenrs · concernns · concernss · concerrns

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "concedes" for "concerns" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "concedes" is a verb and "concerns" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "concedes" vs "concerns" - which ranks higher?
"concerns" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,522 in our English list, against #33,184 for "concedes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "concedes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "concerns" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #309,613 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "concedes" and "concerns" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "concede vs concedes". 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 #309,613 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list