Engrain or ingrain?
engrain is a verb meaning “Alternative spelling of ingrain”; ingrain is a verb meaning “To dye with a fast or lasting colour”. Wiktionary gives them as spellings of the same word.
What is the difference between engrain and ingrain?
| engrain | ingrain | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb | verb, adjective, noun |
| Meaning | Alternative spelling of ingrain | To dye with a fast or lasting colour To make (something) deeply part of something else Dyed with grain, or kermes |
| Example | none recorded | The dirt was deeply ingrained in the carpet |
| Forms | engrains, engraining, engrained | ingrains, ingraining, ingrained |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /ɪŋˈɡɹeɪn/ |
| In writing | too rare to measure | about once in every 15 million words |
Sources: engrain and ingrain 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 engrain and ingrain
engrain
- 1
Alternative spelling of ingrain
ingrain
- 1
To dye with a fast or lasting colour
- 2
Dyed with grain, or kermes
- 3
An ingrain fabric, such as a carpet
- 4
To make (something) deeply part of something else
The dirt was deeply ingrained in the carpet
- 5
Dyed before manufacture; said of the material of a textile fabric
- 6
Thoroughly inwrought; forming an essential part of the substance
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, engrain or ingrain?
engrain appears too rarely to measure; ingrain about once in every 15 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 engrain vs ingrain?
“engrain vs ingrain” is searched about 170 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“ingrain vs engrain”, “engrain or ingrain”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.