professionvsprogressionWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#3,791
“profession” frequency rank
#4,521
“progression” frequency rank
8312
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature profession progression
Definition Déclaration publique d’un sentiment habituel. Marche en avant.

Where the eye mixes profession and progression

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

10 ch
profession
11 ch
progression

Look-alike desk: profession vs progression

A purely visual mix-up. profession (\pʁɔ.fɛ.sjɔ̃\) and progression (\pʁɔ.ɡʁɛ.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 8312, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

profession is recorded at frequency rank #3,791, classified as anoun, pronounced \pʁɔ.fɛ.sjɔ̃\. progression is at rank #4,521, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁɔ.ɡʁɛ.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 8312, this pair ranks #420,444 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of profession vs progression

Shared letters: einoprs. Private to "profession": f. Private to "progression": g.

"profession" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCCVVC  ·  "progression" · 11 letters · shape CCVCCVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • professionporfession · pprofession · prfoession · proefssion · profesion · profesison · professino · professionn
  • progressionporgression · pprogression · prgoression · progerssion · proggression · progresion · progresison · progressino

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "profession" and "progression" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pʁɔ.fɛ.sjɔ̃\ versus \pʁɔ.ɡʁɛ.sjɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "profession" or "progression"?
"profession" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,791 in our French list, against #4,521 for "progression". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "profession" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "progression" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #420,444 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "profession" and "progression" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "progression 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 #420,444 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