additionvsadditionsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#9,776
“addition” frequency rank
#36,687
“additions” frequency rank
46463
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature addition additions
Definition Action d’ajouter. Pluriel de addition.

Same sound, different letters: addition vs additions

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. addition runs 8 letters (VCCVCVVC) against additions's 9 (VCCVCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
addition
9 ch
additions

Homophone desk: addition vs additions

This is the hard kind. addition and additions are pronounced identically (\a.di.sjɔ̃\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “addition” sits inside “additions”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46463, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

addition is recorded at frequency rank #9,776, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.di.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 46463, this pair ranks #194,741 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of addition vs additions

Shared letters: adinot. Private to "addition": -. Private to "additions": s.

"addition" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVVC  ·  "additions" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • additionaddiiton · additino · additionn · additoin · addittion · addtiion · adidtion · adition
  • additionsaddiitons · additinos · additionns · additionss · additiosn · additoins · addittions · addtiions

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "addition" and "additions" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\a.di.sjɔ̃\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "addition" vs "additions" - which ranks higher?
"addition" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,776 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.

After this comparison

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "addition" 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 #194,741 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "addition" 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 #194,741 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