concessionvsconfessionTell them apart

Which to use

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

#7,039
“concession” frequency rank
#8,825
“confession” frequency rank
15864
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature concession confession
Definition Action de concéder quelque jouissance, quelque droit. Aveu, déclaration que l’on fait de quelque chose.

Where the eye mixes concession and confession

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. concession and confession follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

10 ch
concession
10 ch
confession

Visual trap between concession and confession

A purely visual mix-up. concession (\kɔ̃.sɛ.sjɔ̃\) and confession (\kɔ̃.fe.sjɔ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - c in “concession” becomes f in “confession”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15864, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

concession is recorded at frequency rank #7,039, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.sɛ.sjɔ̃\. confession is at rank #8,825, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.fe.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 15864, this pair ranks #390,515 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of concession vs confession

Shared letters: ceinos. Private to "concession": -. Private to "confession": f.

"concession" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVC  ·  "confession" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • concession ← cconcession · cnocession · cocnession · conccession · concesion · concesison · concessino · concessionn
  • confession ← cconfession · cnofession · cofnession · conefssion · confesion · confesison · confessino · confessionn

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "concession" and "confession" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ̃.sɛ.sjɔ̃\ versus \kɔ̃.fe.sjɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "concession" or "confession" show up more?
"concession" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,039 in our French list, against #8,825 for "confession". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "concession" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "confession" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #390,515 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "concession" and "confession" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "confession vs congestion". 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 #390,515 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