confession
/kənˈfɛʃən/
"confession" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“confession” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #8,527 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #8,527
- frequency rank, English
- 10
- letters
- 14
- tracked misspellings
- 8
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The open admittance of having done something (especially something bad).
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 | confession |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kənˈfɛʃən/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #8,527 |
| Misspellings tracked | 14 |
| Confusable pairs | 8 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “confession” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for confession is 10 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kənˈfɛʃən/. Corpus data places it at rank #8,527 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 14 likely wrong-spelling variants for confession, with forms such as "cconfession", "cnofession", and "cofnession". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 8 confusable-pair relationships, "confusion", "confessor", "conversion", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English confessioun, from Old French confession, from Latin cōnfessiō, cōnfessiōnem (“confession, acknowledgment, creed or avowal of one's faith”). Displaced native Old English andetnes. Doublet of confessio. Morphologically confess + -ion. Sens… The correct English form is confession, spelled C-O-N-F-E-S-S-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1The open admittance of having done something (especially something bad).
- 2A formal document providing such an admission.
- 3The disclosure of one's sins to a priest for absolution. In the Roman Catholic Church, it is now also termed the sacrament of reconciliation.
- 4Acknowledgment of belief; profession of one's faith.
- 5A formula in which the articles of faith are comprised; a creed to be assented to or signed, as a preliminary to admission to membership of a church; a confession of faith.
- 6The act of professing one's love.
Etymology
From Middle English confessioun, from Old French confession, from Latin cōnfessiō, cōnfessiōnem (“confession, acknowledgment, creed or avowal of one's faith”). Displaced native Old English andetnes. Doublet of confessio. Morphologically confess + -ion. Sense 6 is a calque of 告白 (kokuhaku).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: cconfession,cnofession,cofnession,conefssion,confesion,confesison,confessino,confessionn,confessoin,confestion,conffession,confsesion,connfession,ocnfession
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of confession - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 “confession”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-O-N-F-E-S-S-I-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /kənˈfɛʃən/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “confusion” - see the side-by-side comparison. confession vs confusion
- 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.