affectionvsaffectionsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#6,360
“affection” frequency rank
#19,731
“affections” frequency rank
26091
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature affection affections
Definition Sentiment d’aimer quelqu’un avec attachement ou tendresse, et qui nous porte à vouloir son bien-être ou son bonheur ; amitié ou amour non passionnel ou romantique. Pluriel de affection.

Same sound, different letters: affection vs affections

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters.

9 ch
affection
10 ch
affections

Ear matches; page differs - affection and affections

This is the hard kind. affection and affections are pronounced identically (\a.fɛk.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) - “affection” sits inside “affections”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26091, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

affection is recorded at frequency rank #6,360, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.fɛk.sjɔ̃\. affections is at rank #19,731, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.fɛk.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 26091, this pair ranks #337,153 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of affection vs affections

Shared letters: acefinot. Private to "affection": -. Private to "affections": s.

"affection" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVVC  ·  "affections" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • affectionafection · afefction · affcetion · affecction · affeciton · affectino · affectionn · affectoin
  • affectionsafections · afefctions · affcetions · affecctions · affecitons · affectinos · affectionns · affectionss

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "affection" and "affections" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\a.fɛk.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: "affection" vs "affections" - which ranks higher?
"affection" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,360 in our French list, against #19,731 for "affections". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "affection" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "affections" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #337,153 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "affection" and "affections" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "affections vs affectives". 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 #337,153 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