Defuse or diffuse?
defuse is a verb meaning “To remove the fuse from (e.g. a bomb)”; diffuse is a verb meaning “To spread (something) over or through as in air, water, or other matter…”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) diffuse is about 2.5 times as common as defuse.
What is the difference between defuse and diffuse?
| defuse | diffuse | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb | verb, adjective |
| Meaning | To remove the fuse from (e.g. a bomb) To make less dangerous, tense, or hostile | To spread (something) over or through as in air, water, or other matter, especially by fluid motion or passive means To be spread over or through as in air, water, or other matter, especially by fluid motion or passive means Everywhere or throughout everything; not focused or concentrated |
| Example | The diplomats are trying to defuse the escalating crisis | The small window diffuses light throughout the room |
| Forms | defuses, defusing, defused | diffuses, diffusing, diffused |
| Pronunciation | /diːˈfjuːz/ /dɪˈfjuːz/ | /dɪˈfjuːz/ /dɪˈfjuz/ /dɪˈfjuːs/ |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words | 1.9 times per million words |
Sources: defuse and diffuse 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 defuse and diffuse
defuse
- 1
To remove the fuse from (e.g. a bomb)
- 2
To make less dangerous, tense, or hostile
The diplomats are trying to defuse the escalating crisis
diffuse
- 1
To spread (something) over or through as in air, water, or other matter, especially by fluid motion or passive means
The small window diffuses light throughout the room
- 2
Everywhere or throughout everything; not focused or concentrated
Such a diffuse effort is unlikely to produce good results
- 3
To be spread over or through as in air, water, or other matter, especially by fluid motion or passive means
Food coloring diffuses in water
- 4
Wordy; verbose
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, defuse or diffuse?
defuse appears about once in every 1 million words; diffuse 1.9 times per million words.
defuse about once in every 1 million wordsdiffuse 1.9 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 defuse vs diffuse?
“defuse vs diffuse” is searched about 1,900 times a month on Google and 130 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“diffuse vs defuse”, “defuse or diffuse”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.