Aspire or inspire?
aspire is a verb meaning “To have a strong desire or ambition to achieve something”; inspire is a verb meaning “To infuse into the mind; to communicate to the spirit; to convey, as by a…”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) inspire is about 3.4 times as common as aspire.
What is the difference between aspire and inspire?
| aspire | inspire | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb | verb |
| Meaning | To have a strong desire or ambition to achieve something | To infuse into the mind; to communicate to the spirit; to convey, as by a divine or supernatural influence; to disclose preternaturally; to produce in, as by… To infuse into; to affect, as with a superior or supernatural influence; to fill with what animates, enlivens or exalts; to communicate inspiration to |
| Example | to aspire to / for / after / to do something; to aspire that something happens | Elders should inspire children with sentiments of virtue |
| Forms | aspires, aspiring, aspired | inspires, inspiring, inspired |
| Pronunciation | /əˈspaɪə(ɹ)/ /əˈspaɪɚ/ | /ɪnˈspaɪə(ɹ)/ /ɪnˈspaɪɹ/ /ɪnˈspɑeə(ɹ)/ |
| In writing | 3.0 times per million words | 10 times per million words |
Sources: aspire and inspire 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 aspire and inspire
aspire
- 1
To have a strong desire or ambition to achieve something
to aspire to / for / after / to do something; to aspire that something happens
inspire
- 1
To infuse into the mind; to communicate to the spirit; to convey, as by a divine or supernatural influence; to disclose preternaturally; to produce in, as by inspiration
- 2
To infuse into; to affect, as with a superior or supernatural influence; to fill with what animates, enlivens or exalts; to communicate inspiration to
Elders should inspire children with sentiments of virtue
- 3
To draw in by the operation of breathing; to inhale
- 4
To infuse by breathing, or as if by breathing
- 5
To spread rumour indirectly
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, aspire or inspire?
aspire appears 3.0 times per million words; inspire 10 times per million words.
aspire 3.0 times per million wordsinspire 10 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 aspire vs inspire?
“aspire vs inspire” is searched about 720 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“inspire vs aspire”, “aspire or inspire”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.