donationsvsdotationWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#20,117
“donations” frequency rank
#13,772
“dotation” frequency rank
33889
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature donations dotation
Definition Pluriel de donation. Action de doter un établissement d’utilité publique, un corps, etc.

Where the eye mixes donations and dotation

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

9 ch
donations
8 ch
dotation

Visual trap between donations and dotation

A purely visual mix-up. donations (\dɔ.na.sjɔ̃\) and dotation (\dɔ.ta.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 33889, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

donations is recorded at frequency rank #20,117, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɔ.na.sjɔ̃\. dotation is at rank #13,772, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dɔ.ta.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 33889, this pair ranks #287,596 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of donations vs dotation

Shared letters: adinot. Private to "donations": s. Private to "dotation": -.

"donations" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVVCC  ·  "dotation" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • donationsddonations · dnoations · doantions · donaitons · donatinos · donationns · donationss · donatiosn
  • dotationddotation · doattion · dotaiton · dotatino · dotationn · dotatoin · dotattion · dottaion

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "donations" and "dotation" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\dɔ.na.sjɔ̃\ versus \dɔ.ta.sjɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "donations" vs "dotation" - which ranks higher?
"dotation" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,772 in our French list, against #20,117 for "donations". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "donations" and "dotation" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "donations" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dotation" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #287,596 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "donations" and "dotation" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "délation vs dotation". 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 #287,596 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