devotionvsdevotionalWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#10,677
“devotion” frequency rank
#23,512
“devotional” frequency rank
34189
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature devotion devotional
Definition The act or state of devoting or being devoted. A brief religious service.

Where the eye mixes devotion and devotional

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

8 ch
devotion
10 ch
devotional

Visual trap between devotion and devotional

A purely visual mix-up. devotion (/dɪˈvəʊʃən/) and devotional (/dɪˈvəʊʃənəl/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “devotion” sits inside “devotional”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34189, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

devotion is recorded at frequency rank #10,677, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɪˈvəʊʃən/. devotional is at rank #23,512, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dɪˈvəʊʃənəl/.

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 34189, this pair ranks #322,904 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of devotion vs devotional

Shared letters: deinotv. Private to "devotion": -. Private to "devotional": al.

"devotion" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC  ·  "devotional" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • devotionddevotion · deovtion · devoiton · devosion · devotino · devotionn · devotoin · devottion
  • devotionalddevotional · deovtional · devoitonal · devotinoal · devotioanl · devotionall · devotionla · devotionnal

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "devotion" and "devotional" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/dɪˈvəʊʃən/ versus /dɪˈvəʊʃənəl/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "devotion" or "devotional"?
"devotion" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,677 in our English list, against #23,512 for "devotional". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "devotion" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "devotional" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #322,904 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "devotion" and "devotional" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "demotion vs devotion". 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 #322,904 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