interceptionvsintercessionWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#22,904
“interception” frequency rank
#38,370
“intercession” frequency rank
61274
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature interception intercession
Definition Action d’intercepter ou résultat de cette action. Action d’intercéder.

Where the eye mixes interception and intercession

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence.

12 ch
interception
12 ch
intercession

Look-alike desk: interception vs intercession

A purely visual mix-up. interception (\ɛ̃.tɛʁ.sɛp.sjɔ̃\) and intercession (\ɛ̃.tɛʁ.se.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 61274, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

interception is recorded at frequency rank #22,904, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.tɛʁ.sɛp.sjɔ̃\. intercession is at rank #38,370, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.tɛʁ.se.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 61274, this pair ranks #93,121 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of interception vs intercession

Shared letters: ceinort. Private to "interception": p. Private to "intercession": s.

"interception" · 12 letters · shape VCCVCCVCCVVC  ·  "intercession" · 12 letters · shape VCCVCCVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • interceptioninetrception · innterception · intecreption · intercception · intercepiton · intercepption · interceptino · interceptionn
  • intercessioninetrcession · inntercession · intecression · interccession · intercesion · intercesison · intercessino · intercessionn

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "interception" and "intercession" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ̃.tɛʁ.sɛp.sjɔ̃\ versus \ɛ̃.tɛʁ.se.sjɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "interception" or "intercession" show up more?
"interception" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,904 in our French list, against #38,370 for "intercession". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "interception" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "intercession" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #93,121 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "interception" and "intercession" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "interception vs interceptions". 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 #93,121 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