Graft or grift?
graft is a noun meaning “A small shoot or scion of a tree inserted in another tree, the stock of which…”; grift is a noun meaning “A confidence game or swindle”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) graft is about 15 times as common as grift.
What is the difference between graft and grift?
| graft | grift | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb | noun, verb |
| Meaning | A small shoot or scion of a tree inserted in another tree, the stock of which is to support and nourish it. The two unite and become one tree, but the graft… A branch or portion of a tree growing from such a shoot To insert (a graft) in a branch or stem of another tree; to propagate by insertion in another stock; also, to insert a graft upon | |
| Example | We had to put in a lot of hard graft to get the job done | Hey, what's the grift? What are you trying to pull? |
| Forms | grafts | grifts |
| Pronunciation | /ɡɹɑːft/ /ɡɹæft/ | /ɡɹɪft/ |
| In writing | 3.0 times per million words | about once in every 5 million words |
Sources: graft and grift 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 graft and grift
graft
- 1
A small shoot or scion of a tree inserted in another tree, the stock of which is to support and nourish it. The two unite and become one tree, but the graft determines the kind of fruit
- 2
To insert (a graft) in a branch or stem of another tree; to propagate by insertion in another stock; also, to insert a graft upon
- 3
The depth of the blade of a digging tool such as a spade or shovel
- 4
Corruption in official life
- 5
colloquialTo work hard
- 6
A branch or portion of a tree growing from such a shoot
- 7
To insert scions (grafts) from one tree, or kind of tree, etc., into another; to practice grafting
- 8
A narrow spade used in digging drainage trenches
grift
- 1
USslangA confidence game or swindle
Hey, what's the grift? What are you trying to pull?
- 2
USslangTo obtain illegally, as by con game
- 3
USslangTo obtain money illegally
- 4
USslangTo obtain money immorally or through deceitful means
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, graft or grift?
graft appears 3.0 times per million words; grift about once in every 5 million words.
graft 3.0 times per million wordsgrift about once in every 5 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 graft vs grift?
“graft vs grift” is searched about 480 times a month on Google and 50 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“grift vs graft”, “graft or grift”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.