confessionvsconfessionsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#8,825
“confession” frequency rank
#14,228
“confessions” frequency rank
23053
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature confession confessions
Definition Aveu, déclaration que l’on fait de quelque chose. Pluriel de confession.

Same sound, different letters: confession vs confessions

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 10 letters. confession runs 10 letters (CVCCVCCVVC) against confessions's 11 (CVCCVCCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
confession
11 ch
confessions

Same sound, different spelling - confession / confessions

This is the hard kind. confession and confessions are pronounced identically (\kɔ̃.fe.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) - “confession” sits inside “confessions”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23053, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

confession is recorded at frequency rank #8,825, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.fe.sjɔ̃\. confessions is at rank #14,228, 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 23053, this pair ranks #354,639 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of confession vs confessions

Shared letters: cefinos. Private to "confession": -. Private to "confessions": -.

"confession" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVC  ·  "confessions" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • confession ← cconfession · cnofession · cofnession · conefssion · confesion · confesison · confessino · confessionn
  • confessions ← cconfessions · cnofessions · cofnessions · conefssions · confesions · confesisons · confessinos · confessionns

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "confession" and "confessions" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\kɔ̃.fe.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: "confession" vs "confessions" - which ranks higher?
"confession" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,825 in our French list, against #14,228 for "confessions". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "confession" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "confessions" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #354,639 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "confession" and "confessions" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "confessions vs confusions". 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 #354,639 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