Which to use
“impact” is a noun and “impacted” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,273
- “impact” frequency rank
- #10,712
- “impacted” frequency rank
- 11985
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | impact | impacted |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The striking of one body against another; collision. | Having undergone an impact. |
Letter map: impact vs impacted
Shared letters muted; letters that set impact and impacted apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.
Role in the sentence - impact and impacted
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: impact is anoun and impactedanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “impact” sits inside “impacted”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11985, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
impact is recorded at frequency rank #1,273, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɪmpækt/. impacted is at rank #10,712, tagged as anadj.
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 11985, this pair ranks #484,056 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of impact vs impacted
Shared letters: acimpt. Private to "impact": -. Private to "impacted": de.
"impact" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC · "impacted" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "impact" for "impacted" ever safe?
Which is more common, "impact" or "impacted"?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "impact" and "impacted".
- Full dictionary entry for "impact" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "impacted" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #484,056 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "impact" and "impacted" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "impacted vs impaled". 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 #484,056 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.