lagoonvslegionWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: lagoon is a noun, legion is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“lagoon” is a noun and “legion” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#16,511
“lagoon” frequency rank
#8,812
“legion” frequency rank
25323
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lagoon legion
Definition A shallow body of water separated from deeper sea by a bar. Numerous; vast; very great in number.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set lagoon and legion apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
lagoon
6 ch
legion

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lagoon is /ləˈɡuːn/ while legion is /ˈliː.d͡ʒən/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25323, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lagoon is recorded at frequency rank #16,511, classified as anoun, pronounced /ləˈɡuːn/. legion is at rank #8,812, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈliː.d͡ʒən/.

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 25323, this pair ranks #395,183 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lagoon vs legion

Shared letters: glno. Private to "lagoon": a. Private to "legion": ei.

"lagoon" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "legion" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lagoonalgoon · laggoon · lagon · lagono · lagoonn · laogon · lgaoon · llagoon
  • legionelgion · leggion · legino · legionn · legoin · leigon · lgeion · llegion

Frequency comparison

lagoon#16,511
legion#8,812

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lagoon" and "legion" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lagoon" is a noun and "legion" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "lagoon" or "legion"?
"legion" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,812 in our English list, against #16,511 for "lagoon". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering lagoon vs legion

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “lagoon”; for an adjective, it's “legion”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “lagoon” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list