Which to use
“million” is a num and “mission” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #469
- “million” frequency rank
- #1,430
- “mission” frequency rank
- 1899
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | million | mission |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The cardinal number 1 000 000: 10⁶; a thousand thousand. | A set of tasks that fulfills a purpose or duty; an assignment set by an employer, or by oneself. |
Where the eye mixes million and mission
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: million is /ˈmɪl.jən/ while mission is /ˈmɪʃ.ən/. 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 (num vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1899, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
million is recorded at frequency rank #469, classified as anum, pronounced /ˈmɪl.jən/. mission is at rank #1,430, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɪʃ.ən/.
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 1899, this pair ranks #526,352 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of million vs mission
Shared letters: imno. Private to "million": l. Private to "mission": s.
"million" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "mission" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC