Which to use
“license” and “licensure” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,902
- “license” frequency rank
- #38,943
- “licensure” frequency rank
- 41845
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | license | licensure |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A legal document giving official permission to do something; a permit. | The act of conferring a license for an activity. |
Letter map: license vs licensure
Shared letters muted; letters that set license and licensure apart highlighted. Shared run: 7.
Corpus notes: license and licensure
license and licensure 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41845, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
license is recorded at frequency rank #2,902, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈlaɪ.səns/. licensure is at rank #38,943, tagged as anoun.
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 41845, this pair ranks #254,615 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of license vs licensure
Shared letters: ceilns. Private to "license": -. Private to "licensure": ru.
"license" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV · "licensure" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "license" and "licensure" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "license" vs "licensure" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
You've compared "license" and "licensure". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "license" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "licensure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #254,615 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "license" and "licensure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "licensee vs licensure". 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 #254,615 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.