addictionvsadditionsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“addiction” and “additions” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#14,840
“addiction” frequency rank
#36,687
“additions” frequency rank
51527
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature addiction additions
Definition Dépendance physique à une drogue, entraînant une perte de liberté d'action. Pluriel de addition.

Where the eye mixes addiction and additions

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. addiction (VCCVCCVVC) and additions (VCCVCVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

9 ch
addiction
9 ch
additions

Visual trap between addiction and additions

A purely visual mix-up. addiction (\a.dik.sjɔ̃\) and additions (\a.di.sjɔ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 5 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51527, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

addiction is recorded at frequency rank #14,840, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.dik.sjɔ̃\. additions is at rank #36,687, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.di.sjɔ̃\.

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 51527, this pair ranks #154,372 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of addiction vs additions

Shared letters: adinot. Private to "addiction": c. Private to "additions": s.

"addiction" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVVC  ·  "additions" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • addictionaddcition · addicction · addiciton · addictino · addictionn · addictoin · addicttion · additcion
  • additionsaddiitons · additinos · additionns · additionss · additiosn · additoins · addittions · addtiions

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "addiction" for "additions" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\a.dik.sjɔ̃\ versus \a.di.sjɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "addiction" vs "additions" - which ranks higher?
"addiction" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,840 in our French list, against #36,687 for "additions". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "addiction" and "additions" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "addiction" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "additions" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #154,372 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "addiction" and "additions" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "additions vs adoptions". 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 #154,372 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list