conceptionvsconcessionWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#10,348
“conception” frequency rank
#13,489
“concession” frequency rank
23837
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature conception concession
Definition The act of conceiving. The act of conceding.

Where the eye mixes conception and concession

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.

10 ch
conception
10 ch
concession

Why the eye confuses conception with concession

A purely visual mix-up. conception (/kənˈsɛpʃən/) and concession (/kənˈsɛʃən/) 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 23837, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

conception is recorded at frequency rank #10,348, classified as anoun, pronounced /kənˈsɛpʃən/. concession is at rank #13,489, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kənˈsɛʃən/.

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 23837, this pair ranks #406,369 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of conception vs concession

Shared letters: ceino. Private to "conception": pt. Private to "concession": s.

"conception" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVC  ·  "concession" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • conceptioncconception · cnoception · cocneption · concception · concepiton · concepption · concepsion · conceptino
  • concessioncconcession · cnocession · cocnession · conccession · concesion · concesison · concessino · concessionn

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "conception" and "concession" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/kənˈsɛpʃən/ versus /kənˈsɛʃən/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "conception" vs "concession" - which ranks higher?
"conception" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,348 in our English list, against #13,489 for "concession". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "conception" and "concession" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "conception" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "concession" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #406,369 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "conception" and "concession" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conception vs concoction". 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 #406,369 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