Which to use
“irrigation” and “irritation” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,915
- “irrigation” frequency rank
- #25,021
- “irritation” frequency rank
- 40936
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | irrigation | irritation |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de distribuer artificiellement de l’eau sur des terres agricoles afin de favoriser la croissance des plantes, au moyen de canaux, de rigoles, de systèmes d’aspersion ou de goutte-à-goutte. | Réaction inflammatoire locale, souvent douloureuse, affectant un tissu ou un organe exposé à un agent irritant (chimique, physique ou infectieux). |
Where the eye mixes irrigation and irritation
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. irrigation and irritation follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: irrigation vs irritation
A purely visual mix-up. irrigation (\i.ʁi.ɡa.sjɔ̃\) and irritation (\i.ʁi.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 a single letter - g in “irrigation” becomes t in “irritation”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40936, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
irrigation is recorded at frequency rank #15,915, classified as anoun, pronounced \i.ʁi.ɡa.sjɔ̃\. irritation is at rank #25,021, tagged as anoun, pronounced \i.ʁi.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 40936, this pair ranks #236,835 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of irrigation vs irritation
Shared letters: ainort. Private to "irrigation": g. Private to "irritation": -.
"irrigation" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCVVC · "irritation" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- irrigation ← irigation · irirgation · irrgiation · irriagtion · irrigaiton · irrigatino · irrigationn · irrigatoin
- irritation ← irirtation · iritation · irriattion · irritaiton · irritatino · irritationn · irritatoin · irritattion
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "irrigation" and "irritation" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "irrigation" or "irritation"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "irrigation" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "irritation" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #236,835 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "irrigation" and "irritation" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "irritation vs irritations". 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 #236,835 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.