conceitvsconcernWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“conceit” and “concern” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#36,084
“conceit” frequency rank
#2,195
“concern” frequency rank
38279
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature conceit concern
Definition Something conceived in the mind; an idea, a thought. That which affects one’s welfare or happiness. A matter of interest to someone.

Where the eye mixes conceit and concern

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
conceit
7 ch
concern

Visual trap between conceit and concern

A purely visual mix-up. conceit (/kənˈsiːt/) and concern (/kənˈsɝn/) 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 38279, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

conceit is recorded at frequency rank #36,084, classified as anoun, pronounced /kənˈsiːt/. concern is at rank #2,195, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kənˈsɝn/.

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 38279, this pair ranks #287,337 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of conceit vs concern

Shared letters: ceno. Private to "conceit": it. Private to "concern": r.

"conceit" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "concern" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • conceitcconceit · cnoceit · cocneit · concceit · conceitt · conceti · conciet · conecit
  • concerncconcern · cnocern · cocnern · conccern · concenr · concernn · concerrn · concren

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "conceit" and "concern" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/kənˈsiːt/ versus /kənˈsɝn/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "conceit" or "concern" show up more?
"concern" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,195 in our English list, against #36,084 for "conceit". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "conceit" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "concern" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #287,337 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "conceit" and "concern" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conceit vs conceited". 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 #287,337 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