Which to use
“suppressing” is a verb and “suppression” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #20,240
- “suppressing” frequency rank
- #11,617
- “suppression” frequency rank
- 31857
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | suppressing | suppression |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of suppress | The act or instance of suppressing. |
Letter map: suppressing vs suppression
Shared letters muted; letters that set suppressing and suppression apart highlighted. Shared run: 10.
Part-of-speech tell for suppressing / suppression
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: suppressing is averb and suppressionanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31857, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
suppressing is recorded at frequency rank #20,240, classified as averb. suppression is at rank #11,617, tagged as anoun, pronounced /səˈpɹɛʃən/.
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 31857, this pair ranks #342,639 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of suppressing vs suppression
Shared letters: einprsu. Private to "suppressing": g. Private to "suppression": o.
"suppressing" · 11 letters · shape CVCCCVCCVCC · "suppression" · 11 letters · shape CVCCCVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- suppressing ← spupressing · ssuppressing · supperssing · suppresing · suppresisng · suppressign · suppressingg · suppressinng
- suppression ← spupression · ssuppression · supperssion · suppresion · suppresison · suppressino · suppressionn · suppressoin
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "suppressing" for "suppression" ever safe?
Frequency check: "suppressing" vs "suppression" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "suppressing" and "suppression".
- Full dictionary entry for "suppressing" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "suppression" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #342,639 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "suppressing" and "suppression" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "suppression vs suppressor". 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 #342,639 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.