InterimvsintimWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Interim is a noun, intim is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#40,012
“Interim” frequency rank
#30,133
“intim” frequency rank
70145
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Interim intim
Definition Zwischenzeit vertraut, eng verbunden, innerst, innerlichst

Where the eye mixes Interim and intim

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
Interim
5 ch
intim

Visual trap between Interim and intim

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Interim is [ˈɪntəʁɪm] while intim is [ɪnˈtiːm]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 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 70145, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Interim is recorded at frequency rank #40,012, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈɪntəʁɪm]. intim is at rank #30,133, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ɪnˈtiːm].

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 70145, this pair ranks #455,143 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Interim vs intim

Shared letters: imnt. Private to "Interim": er. Private to "intim": -.

"Interim" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC  ·  "intim" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Interiminetrim · innterim · inteirm · interimm · intermi · interrim · intreim · intterim
  • intiminitm · inntim · intimm · intmi · inttim · itnim · nitim

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Interim" and "intim" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Interim" is a noun and "intim" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Interim" or "intim" show up more?
"intim" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,133 in our German list, against #40,012 for "Interim". 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 "Interim" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "intim" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #455,143 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Interim" and "intim" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Interim vs Interna". 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 #455,143 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list