Ensure or insure?
ensure is a verb meaning “To make sure or certain of something (usually some future event or condition)”; insure is a verb meaning “To provide for compensation if some specified risk occurs. Often agreed by…”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) ensure is about 20 times as common as insure.
What is the difference between ensure and insure?
| ensure | insure | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb | verb |
| Meaning | To make sure or certain of something (usually some future event or condition) | To provide for compensation if some specified risk occurs. Often agreed by policy (contract) to offer financial compensation in case of an accident, theft or… To deal in such contracts; subscribe to a policy of insurance |
| Example | I use an alarm clock to ensure that I get up on time | I'm not insured against burglary |
| Forms | ensures, ensuring, ensured | insures, insuring, insured |
| Pronunciation | /ɪnˈʃɔː(ɹ)/ /ɪnˈʃʊə(ɹ)/ /ɪnˈʃʊɹ/ | /ɪnˈʃɔː(ɹ)/ /ɪnˈʃʊə(ɹ)/ /ɪnˈʃʊɚ/ |
| In writing | 50 times per million words | 2.5 times per million words |
Sources: ensure and insure 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 ensure and insure
ensure
- 1
To make sure or certain of something (usually some future event or condition)
I use an alarm clock to ensure that I get up on time
insure
- 1
To provide for compensation if some specified risk occurs. Often agreed by policy (contract) to offer financial compensation in case of an accident, theft or other undesirable event
I'm not insured against burglary
- 2
To deal in such contracts; subscribe to a policy of insurance
- 3
USdatedAlternative spelling of ensure; to make sure or certain of; guarantee
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, ensure or insure?
ensure appears 50 times per million words; insure 2.5 times per million words.
ensure 50 times per million wordsinsure 2.5 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 ensure vs insure?
“ensure vs insure” is searched about 40,500 times a month on Google and 2,270 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“insure vs ensure”, “ensure or insure”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.