sectionvsseductionTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,097
“section” frequency rank
#21,923
“seduction” frequency rank
23020
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature section seduction
Definition A cutting; a part cut out from the rest of something. The act of seducing.

Where the eye mixes section and seduction

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

7 ch
section
9 ch
seduction

Why the eye confuses section with seduction

A purely visual mix-up. section (/ˈsɛkʃən/) and seduction (/sɪˈdʌk.ʃn̩/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23020, 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/. seduction is at rank #21,923, tagged as anoun, pronounced /sɪˈdʌk.ʃn̩/.

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 23020, this pair ranks #412,308 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of section vs seduction

Shared letters: ceinost. Private to "section": -. Private to "seduction": du.

"section" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "seduction" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sectionesction · scetion · secction · seciton · secsion · sectino · sectionn · sectoin
  • seductionesduction · sdeuction · sedcution · sedduction · seducction · seduciton · seducsion · seductino

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "section" and "seduction" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈsɛkʃən/ versus /sɪˈdʌk.ʃn̩/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "section" or "seduction" show up more?
"section" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,097 in our English list, against #21,923 for "seduction". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "section" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "seduction" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #412,308 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "section" and "seduction" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seduction vs subduction". 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 #412,308 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