Which to use
“petition” and “position” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,319
- “petition” frequency rank
- #624
- “position” frequency rank
- 4943
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | petition | position |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A formal written request made by an individual or a group of people to a sovereign or political authority, often containing many signatures, soliciting some grace, right, mercy, or the redress of some wrong or grievance. | A place or location. |
Where the eye mixes petition and position
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses petition with position
A purely visual mix-up. petition (/pəˈtɪʃ.ən/) and position (/pəˈzɪʃ.ən/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4943, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
petition is recorded at frequency rank #4,319, classified as anoun, pronounced /pəˈtɪʃ.ən/. position is at rank #624, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pəˈzɪʃ.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 4943, this pair ranks #517,142 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of petition vs position
Shared letters: inopt. Private to "petition": e. Private to "position": s.
"petition" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC · "position" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "petition" and "position" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "petition" or "position"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "petition" and "position" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "petition" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "position" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #517,142 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "petition" and "position" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "position vs positron". 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 #517,142 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.