religion vs religious, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“religion” is a noun and “religious” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,803
“religion” frequency rank: #38,888
“religious” frequency rank: 62691
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	religion	religious
Definition	religião	religioso

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set religion and religious apart are highlighted. They share 7 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

8 ch

religion

9 ch

religious

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: religion is /ɹɪ.ˈlɪdʒ.ən/ while religious is /ɹɪ.ˈlɪ.d͡ʒəs/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62691, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

religion is recorded at frequency rank #23,803, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɹɪ.ˈlɪdʒ.ən/. religious is at rank #38,888, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ɹɪ.ˈlɪ.d͡ʒəs/.

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 62691, this pair ranks #6,535 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of religion vs religious

Shared letters: egilor. Private to "religion": n. Private to "religious": su.

"religion" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC · "religious" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

religion ← erligion · reilgion · relgiion · religgion · religino · religionn · religoin · reliigon
religious ← erligious · reilgious · relgiious · religgious · religiosu · religiouss · religiuos · religoius

Frequency comparison

religion#23,803

religious#38,888

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "religion" and "religious" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "religion" is a noun and "religious" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "religion" or "religious"?

"religion" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,803 in our Portuguese list, against #38,888 for "religious". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering religion vs religious

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “religion”; for an adjective, it's “religious”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “religion” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable