organisationvsorganizationConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#743
“organisation” frequency rank
#43,044
“organization” frequency rank
43787
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature organisation organization
Definition Action d’organiser. Organisation.

Where the eye mixes organisation and organization

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 11 letters in sequence. organisation and organization follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVCVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

12 ch
organisation
12 ch
organization

Visual trap between organisation and organization

A purely visual mix-up. organisation (\ɔʁ.ɡa.ni.za.sjɔ̃\) and organization (\ˌɔː.ɡə.naɪˈzeɪ.ʃən\) 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 - s in “organisation” becomes z in “organization”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43787, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

organisation is recorded at frequency rank #743, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɔʁ.ɡa.ni.za.sjɔ̃\. organization is at rank #43,044, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˌɔː.ɡə.naɪˈzeɪ.ʃən\.

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 43787, this pair ranks #215,404 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of organisation vs organization

Shared letters: aginort. Private to "organisation": s. Private to "organization": z.

"organisation" · 12 letters · shape VCCVCVCVCVVC  ·  "organization" · 12 letters · shape VCCVCVCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • organisation ← ogranisation · oragnisation · orgainsation · organiastion · organisaiton · organisatino · organisationn · organisatoin
  • organization ← ogranization · oragnization · orgainzation · organiaztion · organizaiton · organizatino · organizationn · organizatoin

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "organisation" for "organization" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɔʁ.ɡa.ni.za.sjɔ̃\ versus \ˌɔː.ɡə.naɪˈzeɪ.ʃən\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "organisation" or "organization"?
"organisation" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #743 in our French list, against #43,044 for "organization". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "organisation" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "organization" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #215,404 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "organisation" and "organization" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "organisations vs organization". 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 #215,404 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