sectionvssedationTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,097
“section” frequency rank
#30,964
“sedation” frequency rank
32061
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature section sedation
Definition A cutting; a part cut out from the rest of something. The act of sedating, especially by use of sedatives.

Letter map: section vs sedation

Shared letters muted; letters that set section and sedation apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.

7 ch
section
8 ch
sedation

Corpus notes: section and sedation

section and sedation are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32061, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

section is recorded at frequency rank #1,097, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsɛkʃən/. sedation is at rank #30,964, tagged as anoun.

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 32061, this pair ranks #340,965 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of section vs sedation

Shared letters: einost. Private to "section": c. Private to "sedation": ad.

"section" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "sedation" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sectionesction · scetion · secction · seciton · secsion · sectino · sectionn · sectoin
  • sedationesdation · sdeation · seadtion · sedaiton · sedasion · sedatino · sedationn · sedatoin

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "section" and "sedation" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "section" or "sedation"?
"section" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,097 in our English list, against #30,964 for "sedation". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pair "section" vs "sedation" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "section" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sedation" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #340,965 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "section" and "sedation" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Seaton vs sedation". 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 #340,965 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