donationvsdonationsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#7,125
“donation” frequency rank
#6,045
“donations” frequency rank
13170
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature donation donations
Definition A voluntary gift or contribution for a specific cause. plural of donation

Where the eye mixes donation and donations

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

8 ch
donation
9 ch
donations

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. donation (/dəʊˈneɪʃən/) and donations (/doʊˈneɪʃənz/) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “donation” sits inside “donations”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13170, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

donation is recorded at frequency rank #7,125, classified as anoun, pronounced /dəʊˈneɪʃən/. donations is at rank #6,045, tagged as anoun, pronounced /doʊˈneɪʃənz/.

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 13170, this pair ranks #477,387 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of donation vs donations

Shared letters: adinot. Private to "donation": -. Private to "donations": s.

"donation" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC  ·  "donations" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • donationddonation · dnoation · doantion · donaiton · donasion · donatino · donationn · donatoin
  • donationsddonations · dnoations · doantions · donaitons · donatinos · donationns · donationss · donatiosn

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "donation" and "donations" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/dəʊˈneɪʃən/ versus /doʊˈneɪʃənz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "donation" or "donations"?
"donations" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,045 in our English list, against #7,125 for "donation". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list