immunityvsimpurityWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“immunity” and “impurity” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#8,159
“immunity” frequency rank
#42,196
“impurity” frequency rank
50355
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature immunity impurity
Definition The state of being insusceptible to something; notably: The condition of being impure; because of contamination, pollution, adulteration or insufficient purification.

Where the eye mixes immunity and impurity

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

8 ch
immunity
8 ch
impurity

Look-alike desk: immunity vs impurity

A purely visual mix-up. immunity (/ɪˈmjuːnəti/) and impurity (/ɪmˈpjɝɪti/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50355, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

immunity is recorded at frequency rank #8,159, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɪˈmjuːnəti/. impurity is at rank #42,196, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɪmˈpjɝɪti/.

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 50355, this pair ranks #175,079 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of immunity vs impurity

Shared letters: imtuy. Private to "immunity": n. Private to "impurity": pr.

"immunity" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCV  ·  "impurity" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • immunityimmnuity · immuinty · immunitty · immunityy · immuniyt · immunnity · immuntiy · imumnity
  • impurityimmpurity · imppurity · impruity · impuirty · impuritty · impurityy · impuriyt · impurrity

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "immunity" and "impurity" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ɪˈmjuːnəti/ versus /ɪmˈpjɝɪti/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "immunity" or "impurity" show up more?
"immunity" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,159 in our English list, against #42,196 for "impurity". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "immunity" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "impurity" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #175,079 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "immunity" and "impurity" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "impunity vs impurity". Nearby pair
  • 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 #175,079 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list