processionvsprofessionsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#15,727
“procession” frequency rank
#7,484
“professions” frequency rank
23211
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature procession professions
Definition Cortège de prêtres et de fidèles à l’occasion d’une cérémonie religieuse, dans l’intérieur ou au-dehors des lieux de culte. Pluriel de profession.

Where the eye mixes procession and professions

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.

10 ch
procession
11 ch
professions

Visual trap between procession and professions

A purely visual mix-up. procession (\pʁɔ.se.sjɔ̃\) and professions (\pʁɔ.fɛ.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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23211, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

procession is recorded at frequency rank #15,727, classified as anoun, pronounced \pʁɔ.se.sjɔ̃\. professions is at rank #7,484, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁɔ.fɛ.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 23211, this pair ranks #353,778 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of procession vs professions

Shared letters: einoprs. Private to "procession": c. Private to "professions": f.

"procession" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCCVVC  ·  "professions" · 11 letters · shape CCVCVCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • processionporcession · pprocession · prcoession · proccession · procesion · procesison · processino · processionn
  • professionsporfessions · pprofessions · prfoessions · proefssions · profesions · profesisons · professinos · professionns

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "procession" for "professions" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pʁɔ.se.sjɔ̃\ versus \pʁɔ.fɛ.sjɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "procession" vs "professions" - which ranks higher?
"professions" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,484 in our French list, against #15,727 for "procession". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "procession" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "professions" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #353,778 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "procession" and "professions" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "professions vs progressions". 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 #353,778 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