Which to use
“million” and “mission” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,432
- “million” frequency rank
- #848
- “mission” frequency rank
- 3280
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | million | mission |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nom de nombre cardinal. Mille fois mille, 10⁶. | Charge qu’on donne à quelqu’un, avec pleins pouvoirs pour faire quelque chose. |
Where the eye mixes million and mission
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. million and mission follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between million and mission
A purely visual mix-up. million (\mi.ljɔ̃\) and mission (\mi.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 3280, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
million is recorded at frequency rank #2,432, classified as anoun, pronounced \mi.ljɔ̃\. mission is at rank #848, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mi.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 3280, this pair ranks #434,407 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of million vs mission
Shared letters: imno. Private to "million": l. Private to "mission": s.
"million" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "mission" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "million" and "mission" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "million" vs "mission" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "million" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mission" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #434,407 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "million" and "mission" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "million vs milon". 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 #434,407 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.