Which to use
“occupation” and “occupations” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,146
- “occupation” frequency rank
- #16,287
- “occupations” frequency rank
- 21433
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | occupation | occupations |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An activity or task with which one occupies oneself; usually specifically the productive activity, service, trade, or craft for which one is regularly paid; a job. | plural of occupation |
Where the eye mixes occupation and occupations
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between occupation and occupations
A purely visual mix-up. occupation (/ˌɒkjʊˈpeɪʃən/) and occupations (/ɑkjəˈpeɪʃənz/) 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) - “occupation” sits inside “occupations”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21433, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
occupation is recorded at frequency rank #5,146, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˌɒkjʊˈpeɪʃən/. occupations is at rank #16,287, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɑkjəˈpeɪʃənz/.
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 21433, this pair ranks #423,974 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of occupation vs occupations
Shared letters: acinoptu. Private to "occupation": -. Private to "occupations": s.
"occupation" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCVVC · "occupations" · 11 letters · shape VCCVCVCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- occupation ← cocupation · occpuation · occuaption · occupaiton · occupasion · occupatino · occupationn · occupatoin
- occupations ← cocupations · occpuations · occuaptions · occupaitons · occupatinos · occupationns · occupationss · occupatiosn
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "occupation" for "occupations" ever safe?
Frequency check: "occupation" vs "occupations" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "occupation" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "occupations" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #423,974 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "occupation" and "occupations" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "occupational vs occupations". 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 #423,974 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.