cognitionvsconditionWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#42,798
“cognition” frequency rank
#1,858
“condition” frequency rank
44656
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cognition condition
Definition Processus mental qui recouvre principalement l'acquisition du savoir et, en premier lieu, du langage, en passant par la mémorisation, le raisonnement, la prise de conscience des émotions, la perception de l'environnement, etc. Nature, état ou qualité d’une chose ou d’une personne.

Where the eye mixes cognition and condition

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.

9 ch
cognition
9 ch
condition

Visual trap between cognition and condition

A purely visual mix-up. cognition (\kɔ.ɲi.sjɔ̃\) and condition (\kɔ̃.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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44656, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cognition is recorded at frequency rank #42,798, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.ɲi.sjɔ̃\. condition is at rank #1,858, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.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 44656, this pair ranks #208,804 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cognition vs condition

Shared letters: cinot. Private to "cognition": g. Private to "condition": d.

"cognition" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVVC  ·  "condition" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cognitionccognition · cgonition · coggnition · cogintion · cogniiton · cognitino · cognitionn · cognitoin
  • conditionccondition · cnodition · codnition · conddition · condiiton · conditino · conditionn · conditoin

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cognition" for "condition" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ.ɲi.sjɔ̃\ versus \kɔ̃.di.sjɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cognition" vs "condition" - which ranks higher?
"condition" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,858 in our French list, against #42,798 for "cognition". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cognition" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "condition" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #208,804 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cognition" and "condition" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cognitifs vs cognition". 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 #208,804 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