processionvsprogressionTell them apart

Which to use

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

#13,589
“procession” frequency rank
#8,333
“progression” frequency rank
21922
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature procession progression
Definition The act of progressing or proceeding. The act of moving from one thing to another.

Where the eye mixes procession and progression

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.

10 ch
procession
11 ch
progression

Look-alike desk: procession vs progression

A purely visual mix-up. procession (/pɹəˈsɛʃən/) and progression (/pɹəˈɡɹɛʃn̩/) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21922, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

procession is recorded at frequency rank #13,589, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɹəˈsɛʃən/. progression is at rank #8,333, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɹəˈɡɹɛʃn̩/.

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 21922, this pair ranks #420,378 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of procession vs progression

Shared letters: einoprs. Private to "procession": c. Private to "progression": g.

"procession" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCCVVC  ·  "progression" · 11 letters · shape CCVCCVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • processionporcession · pprocession · prcoession · proccession · procesion · procesison · processino · processionn
  • progressionporgression · pprogression · prgoression · progerssion · proggression · progresion · progresison · progressino

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "procession" and "progression" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/pɹəˈsɛʃən/ versus /pɹəˈɡɹɛʃn̩/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "procession" or "progression" show up more?
"progression" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,333 in our English list, against #13,589 for "procession". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "procession" and "progression" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "procession" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "progression" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #420,378 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "procession" and "progression" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "procession vs processor". 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 #420,378 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