Which to use
“concession” and “congestion” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,489
- “concession” frequency rank
- #11,854
- “congestion” frequency rank
- 25343
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | concession | congestion |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The act of conceding. | The hindrance or blockage of the passage of something, for example a fluid, mixture, traffic, people, etc. (due to an excess of this or due to a partial or complete obstruction), resulting in overfilling or overcrowding. |
Where the eye mixes concession and congestion
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: concession vs congestion
A purely visual mix-up. concession (/kənˈsɛʃən/) and congestion (/kənˈd͡ʒɛs.t͡ʃən/) 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 25343, 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/. congestion is at rank #11,854, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kənˈd͡ʒɛs.t͡ʃən/.
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 25343, this pair ranks #395,014 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of concession vs congestion
Shared letters: ceinos. Private to "concession": -. Private to "congestion": gt.
"concession" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVC · "congestion" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- concession ← cconcession · cnocession · cocnession · conccession · concesion · concesison · concessino · concessionn
- congestion ← ccongestion · cnogestion · cognestion · conegstion · congesiton · congession · congesstion · congestino
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "concession" and "congestion" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "concession" or "congestion" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "concession" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "congestion" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #395,014 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "concession" and "congestion" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "congestion vs congestive". 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 #395,014 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.