legationvslocationWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#47,154
“legation” frequency rank
#1,461
“location” frequency rank
48615
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature legation location
Definition The purpose for which a legate is sent; a legate's mission or commission. Now rare (cf. OED) A particular point or place in physical space.

Letter map: legation vs location

Shared letters muted; letters that set legation and location apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. legation and location follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
legation
8 ch
location

Spelling & dictionary notes on legation vs location

legation and location 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48615, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

legation is recorded at frequency rank #47,154, classified as anoun. location is at rank #1,461, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ləʊˈkeɪʃən/.

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 48615, this pair ranks #191,372 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of legation vs location

Shared letters: ailnot. Private to "legation": eg. Private to "location": c.

"legation" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC  ·  "location" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • legation ← elgation · leagtion · legaiton · legasion · legatino · legationn · legatoin · legattion
  • location ← lcoation · llocation · loaction · locaiton · locasion · locatino · locationn · locatoin

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "legation" and "location" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "legation" vs "location" - which ranks higher?
"location" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,461 in our English list, against #47,154 for "legation". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pair "legation" vs "location" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "legation" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "location" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #191,372 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "legation" and "location" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "legation vs legion". 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 #191,372 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