demotionvsdevotionConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#41,590
“demotion” frequency rank
#10,677
“devotion” frequency rank
52267
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature demotion devotion
Definition An act of demoting; a lowering of rank or status. The act or state of devoting or being devoted.

Letter map: demotion vs devotion

Shared letters muted; letters that set demotion and devotion apart highlighted. Shared run: 7.

8 ch
demotion
8 ch
devotion

Corpus notes: demotion and devotion

demotion and devotion are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - m in “demotion” becomes v in “devotion”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52267, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

demotion is recorded at frequency rank #41,590, classified as anoun. devotion is at rank #10,677, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dɪˈvəʊʃən/.

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 52267, this pair ranks #158,499 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of demotion vs devotion

Shared letters: deinot. Private to "demotion": m. Private to "devotion": v.

"demotion" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC  ·  "devotion" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • demotionddemotion · demmotion · demoiton · demosion · demotino · demotionn · demotoin · demottion
  • devotionddevotion · deovtion · devoiton · devosion · devotino · devotionn · devotoin · devottion

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "demotion" and "devotion" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by a single letter - m in “demotion” becomes v in “devotion”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "demotion" or "devotion"?
"devotion" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,677 in our English list, against #41,590 for "demotion". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "demotion" vs "devotion" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "demotion" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "devotion" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #158,499 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "demotion" and "devotion" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "deletion vs demotion". 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 #158,499 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