Which to use
“damnation” and “donation” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #34,492
- “damnation” frequency rank
- #12,358
- “donation” frequency rank
- 46850
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | damnation | donation |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de damner, de se damner. | Don qui se fait par acte public. |
Where the eye mixes damnation and donation
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. damnation runs 9 letters (CVCCVCVVC) against donation's 8 (CVCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between damnation and donation
A purely visual mix-up. damnation (\dɑ.na.sjɔ̃\) and donation (\dɔ.na.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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46850, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
damnation is recorded at frequency rank #34,492, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɑ.na.sjɔ̃\. donation is at rank #12,358, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dɔ.na.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 46850, this pair ranks #191,572 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of damnation vs donation
Shared letters: adinot. Private to "damnation": m. Private to "donation": -.
"damnation" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVVC · "donation" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "damnation" for "donation" ever safe?
Which is more common, "damnation" or "donation"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "damnation" and "donation" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "damnation" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "donation" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #191,572 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "damnation" and "donation" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "damnation vs datation". 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 #191,572 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.