Which to use
“refutation” and “reputation” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #46,141
- “refutation” frequency rank
- #3,193
- “reputation” frequency rank
- 49334
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | refutation | reputation |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An act of refuting or disproving; the disproving of an argument, opinion, testimony, doctrine or theory by argument or countervailing proof; evidence of falseness. | What somebody or something is known for. |
Where the eye mixes refutation and reputation
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: refutation vs reputation
A purely visual mix-up. refutation (/ˌɹɛf.jʊˈteɪ.ʃən/) and reputation (/ˌɹɛpjʊˈteɪʃən/) 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 a single letter - f in “refutation” becomes p in “reputation”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49334, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
refutation is recorded at frequency rank #46,141, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˌɹɛf.jʊˈteɪ.ʃən/. reputation is at rank #3,193, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˌɹɛpjʊˈteɪʃən/.
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 49334, this pair ranks #184,629 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of refutation vs reputation
Shared letters: aeinortu. Private to "refutation": f. Private to "reputation": p.
"refutation" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVCVVC · "reputation" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- refutation ← erfutation · reffutation · reftuation · refuattion · refutaiton · refutasion · refutatino · refutationn
- reputation ← erputation · repputation · reptuation · repuattion · reputaiton · reputasion · reputatino · reputationn
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "refutation" and "reputation" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "refutation" vs "reputation" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "refutation" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "reputation" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #184,629 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "refutation" and "reputation" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recitation vs refutation". 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 #184,629 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.