Which to use
“immigrant” is a noun and “immigrate” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,695
- “immigrant” frequency rank
- #46,537
- “immigrate” frequency rank
- 53232
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | immigrant | immigrate |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A non-native person who comes to a country from another country to permanently settle there. | To move into a foreign country to stay permanently. |
Where the eye mixes immigrant and immigrate
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between immigrant and immigrate
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: immigrant is /ˈɪmɪɡɹənt/ while immigrate is /ˈɪmɪɡɹeɪt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53232, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
immigrant is recorded at frequency rank #6,695, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɪmɪɡɹənt/. immigrate is at rank #46,537, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈɪmɪɡɹeɪt/.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 53232, this pair ranks #150,690 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of immigrant vs immigrate
Shared letters: agimrt. Private to "immigrant": n. Private to "immigrate": e.
"immigrant" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCC · "immigrate" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "immigrant" for "immigrate" ever safe?
Which is more common, "immigrant" or "immigrate"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "immigrant" and "immigrate" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "immigrant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "immigrate" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #150,690 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #150,690 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.