Which to use
“addition” and “ambition” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,776
- “addition” frequency rank
- #4,398
- “ambition” frequency rank
- 14174
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | addition | ambition |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action d’ajouter. | Recherche d’honneurs, de gloire, d’élévation sociale, de distinction. |
Where the eye mixes addition and ambition
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. addition and ambition follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: addition vs ambition
A purely visual mix-up. addition (\a.di.sjɔ̃\) and ambition (\ɑ̃.bi.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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14174, 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\. ambition is at rank #4,398, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.bi.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 14174, this pair ranks #397,850 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of addition vs ambition
Shared letters: ainot. Private to "addition": d. Private to "ambition": bm.
"addition" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVVC · "ambition" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "addition" for "ambition" ever safe?
Which is more common, "addition" or "ambition"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "addition" and "ambition" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "addition" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ambition" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #397,850 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "addition" and "ambition" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "addition vs adduction". 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 #397,850 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.