passationvspassionWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#24,320
“passation” frequency rank
#2,238
“passion” frequency rank
26558
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature passation passion
Definition Fait de passer un acte Grandes douleurs ; souffrance.

Where the eye mixes passation and passion

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

9 ch
passation
7 ch
passion

Look-alike desk: passation vs passion

A purely visual mix-up. passation (\pa.sa.sjɔ̃\) and passion (\pa.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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26558, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

passation is recorded at frequency rank #24,320, classified as anoun, pronounced \pa.sa.sjɔ̃\. passion is at rank #2,238, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pa.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 26558, this pair ranks #334,274 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of passation vs passion

Shared letters: ainops. Private to "passation": t. Private to "passion": -.

"passation" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVVC  ·  "passion" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • passationapssation · pasastion · pasation · passaiton · passatino · passationn · passatoin · passattion
  • passionapssion · pasion · pasison · passino · passionn · passoin · ppassion · psasion

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "passation" and "passion" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pa.sa.sjɔ̃\ versus \pa.sjɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "passation" or "passion"?
"passion" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,238 in our French list, against #24,320 for "passation". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "passation" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "passion" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #334,274 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "passation" and "passion" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "passation vs pulsation". 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 #334,274 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