pressionvspressionsConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#1,187
“pression” frequency rank
#6,988
“pressions” frequency rank
8175
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pression pressions
Definition Force appliquée à une unité de surface, ou grandeur scalaire, exercée par un fluide sur une surface, perpendiculairement à celle-ci. Pluriel de pression.

Same sound, different letters: pression vs pressions

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. pression runs 8 letters (CCVCCVVC) against pressions's 9 (CCVCCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
pression
9 ch
pressions

Ear matches; page differs - pression and pressions

This is the hard kind. pression and pressions are pronounced identically (\pʁɛ.sjɔ̃\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “pression” sits inside “pressions”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8175, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pression is recorded at frequency rank #1,187, classified as anoun, pronounced \pʁɛ.sjɔ̃\. pressions is at rank #6,988, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁɛ.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 8175, this pair ranks #420,899 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pression vs pressions

Shared letters: einoprs. Private to "pression": -. Private to "pressions": -.

"pression" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVVC  ·  "pressions" · 9 letters · shape CCVCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pression ← perssion · ppression · presion · presison · pressino · pressionn · pressoin · prression
  • pressions ← perssions · ppressions · presions · presisons · pressinos · pressionns · pressionss · pressiosn

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pression" and "pressions" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\pʁɛ.sjɔ̃\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "pression" or "pressions"?
"pression" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,187 in our French list, against #6,988 for "pressions". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pression" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pressions" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #420,899 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pression" and "pressions" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prenions vs pressions". 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 #420,899 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