Deduce or induce?
deduce is a verb meaning “To reach (a conclusion) by applying rules of logic or other forms of reasoning…”; induce is a verb meaning “To lead by persuasion or influence; incite or prevail upon”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) induce is about 3.9 times as common as deduce.
What is the difference between deduce and induce?
| deduce | induce | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb | verb |
| Meaning | To reach (a conclusion) by applying rules of logic or other forms of reasoning to given premises or known facts To examine, explain, or record (something) in an orderly manner | To lead by persuasion or influence; incite or prevail upon To cause, bring about, lead to |
| Example | to deduce a part from the whole | His meditation induced a compromise. Opium induces sleep |
| Forms | deduces, deducing, deduced | induces, inducing, induced |
| Pronunciation | /dɪˈdʒuːs/ /dɪˈdjuːs/ /dɪˈdus/ | /ɪnˈduːs/ /ɪnˈdjuːs/ |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words | 3.6 times per million words |
Sources: deduce and induce 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 deduce and induce
deduce
- 1
To reach (a conclusion) by applying rules of logic or other forms of reasoning to given premises or known facts
- 2
To examine, explain, or record (something) in an orderly manner
induce
- 1
To lead by persuasion or influence; incite or prevail upon
- 2
To cause, bring about, lead to
His meditation induced a compromise. Opium induces sleep
- 3
To induce the labour of (a pregnant woman)
- 4
To cause or produce (electric current or a magnetic state) by a physical process of induction
- 5
To infer by induction
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, deduce or induce?
deduce appears about once in every 1 million words; induce 3.6 times per million words.
deduce about once in every 1 million wordsinduce 3.6 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 deduce vs induce?
“deduce vs induce” is searched about 590 times a month on Google and 30 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“induce vs deduce”, “deduce or induce”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.