Affect or effect?
affect is a verb meaning “To influence or alter”; effect is a noun meaning “The result or outcome of a cause”. Use affect as a verb and effect as a noun (effect is also a verb: “To make or bring about; to implement”). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) effect is about 2.7 times as common as affect.
What is the difference between affect and effect?
| affect | effect | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb, noun | noun, verb |
| Meaning | To influence or alter To move to emotion To make a show of; to put on a pretense of; to feign; to assume. To make a false display of | The result or outcome of a cause Impression left on the mind; sensation produced To make or bring about; to implement |
| Example | The experience affected me deeply | The effect of the hurricane was a devastated landscape |
| Forms | affects, affecting, affected | effects |
| Pronunciation | /əˈfɛkt/ /əˈfekt/ /ˈæ.fɛkt/ | /ɪˈfɛkt/ /əˈfɛkt/ /ɪˈfekt/ |
| In writing | 39 times per million words | 105 times per million words |
Sources: affect and effect in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of affect and effect
affect
- 1
To influence or alter
The experience affected me deeply
- 2
To make a show of; to put on a pretense of; to feign; to assume. To make a false display of
to affect ignorance
- 3
A subjective feeling experienced in response to a thought or other stimulus; mood, emotion, especially as demonstrated in external physical signs
- 4
To move to emotion
He was deeply affected by the tragic ending of the play
- 5
Of an illness or condition, to infect or harm (a part of the body)
Hepatitis affects the liver
- 6
To burden (property) with a fixed charge or payment, or other condition or restriction
effect
- 1
The result or outcome of a cause
The effect of the hurricane was a devastated landscape
- 2
To make or bring about; to implement
The best way to effect change is to work with existing stakeholders
- 3
Impression left on the mind; sensation produced
- 4
Execution; performance; realization; operation
- 5
The state of being binding and enforceable, as in a rule, policy, or law
The new law will come into effect on the first day of next year
- 6
An illusion produced by technical means (as in "special effect")
The effect of flying was most convincing
- 7
An alteration, or device for producing an alteration, in sound after it has been produced by an instrument
I use an echo effect here to make the sound more mysterious
- 8
A scientific phenomenon, usually named after its discoverer
Doppler effect
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, affect or effect?
affect appears 39 times per million words; effect 105 times per million words.
affect 39 times per million wordseffect 105 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search affect vs effect?
“affect vs effect” is searched about 368,000 times a month on Google and 28,010 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“effect vs affect”, “affect or effect”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.