Which to use
“provision” and “provisions” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,727
- “provision” frequency rank
- #5,905
- “provisions” frequency rank
- 11632
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | provision | provisions |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An item of goods or supplies, especially food, obtained for future use. | plural of provision |
Where the eye mixes provision and provisions
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. provision runs 9 letters (CCVCVCVVC) against provisions's 10 (CCVCVCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses provision with provisions
A purely visual mix-up. provision (/pɹəˈvɪʒ.ən/) and provisions (/pɹəˈvɪʒ.ənz/) 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) - “provision” sits inside “provisions”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11632, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
provision is recorded at frequency rank #5,727, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɹəˈvɪʒ.ən/. provisions is at rank #5,905, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɹəˈvɪʒ.ənz/.
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 11632, this pair ranks #485,982 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of provision vs provisions
Shared letters: inoprsv. Private to "provision": -. Private to "provisions": -.
"provision" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCVVC · "provisions" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- provision ← porvision · pprovision · proivsion · proviison · provisino · provisionn · provisoin · provission
- provisions ← porvisions · pprovisions · proivsions · proviisons · provisinos · provisionns · provisionss · provisiosn
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "provision" and "provisions" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "provision" or "provisions"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "provision" and "provisions" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "provision" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "provisions" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #485,982 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "provision" and "provisions" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "provision vs proviso". 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 #485,982 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.