concessionvsconclusionWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#13,489
“concession” frequency rank
#3,608
“conclusion” frequency rank
17097
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature concession conclusion
Definition The act of conceding. The end, finish, close or last part of something.

Where the eye mixes concession and conclusion

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. concession (CVCCVCCVVC) and conclusion (CVCCCVCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

10 ch
concession
10 ch
conclusion

Visual trap between concession and conclusion

A purely visual mix-up. concession (/kənˈsɛʃən/) and conclusion (/kənˈkluːʒən/) 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 17097, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

concession is recorded at frequency rank #13,489, classified as anoun, pronounced /kənˈsɛʃən/. conclusion is at rank #3,608, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kənˈkluːʒən/.

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 17097, this pair ranks #453,651 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of concession vs conclusion

Shared letters: cinos. Private to "concession": e. Private to "conclusion": lu.

"concession" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVC  ·  "conclusion" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • concession ← cconcession · cnocession · cocnession · conccession · concesion · concesison · concessino · concessionn
  • conclusion ← cconclusion · cnoclusion · cocnlusion · concclusion · concllusion · conclsuion · concluison · conclusino

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "concession" for "conclusion" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/kənˈsɛʃən/ versus /kənˈkluːʒən/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "concession" or "conclusion"?
"conclusion" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,608 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

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "concession" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "conclusion" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #453,651 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "concession" and "conclusion" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "concession vs concussion". 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 #453,651 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