commission
/kəˈmɪʃən/
"commission" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“commission” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,299 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #1,299
- frequency rank, English
- 10
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A sending or mission (to do or accomplish something).
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | commission |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kəˈmɪʃən/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #1,299 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “commission” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for commission is 10 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kəˈmɪʃən/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,299 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for commission, with forms such as "ccommission", "cmomission", and "comimssion". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "compassion", "commissions", "commissioner", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English commissioun, from Old French commission, from Latin commissiō (“sending together; commission”), from prefix com- (“with”) + noun of action missiō (“sending”), from perfect passive participle missus (“sent”), from the verb mittō (“to send… The correct English form is commission, spelled C-O-M-M-I-S-S-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1A sending or mission (to do or accomplish something).
- 2An official charge or authority to do something, often used of military officers.
- 3The thing to be done as agent for another.
- 4A body or group of people, officially tasked with carrying out a particular function.
- 5A fee charged by an agent or broker for carrying out a transaction.
- 6The act of committing (e.g. a crime or error).
Etymology
From Middle English commissioun, from Old French commission, from Latin commissiō (“sending together; commission”), from prefix com- (“with”) + noun of action missiō (“sending”), from perfect passive participle missus (“sent”), from the verb mittō (“to send”) + noun of action suffix -iō.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccommission,cmomission,comimssion,comission,commision,commisison,commissino,commissionn,commissoin,commistion,commsision,ocmmission
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of commission - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “commission”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-O-M-M-I-S-S-I-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /kəˈmɪʃən/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “compassion” - see the side-by-side comparison. commission vs compassion
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.