impact vs impart, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“impact” is a noun and “impart” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,273
“impact” frequency rank: #25,792
“impart” frequency rank: 27065
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	impact	impart
Definition	The striking of one body against another; collision.	To give or bestow (e.g. a quality or property).

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set impact and impart apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch

impact

6 ch

impart

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: impact is /ˈɪmpækt/ while impart is /ɪmˈpɑːt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - c in “impact” becomes r in “impart”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27065, 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/. impart is at rank #25,792, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɪmˈpɑːt/.

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 27065, this pair ranks #381,901 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of impact vs impart

Shared letters: aimpt. Private to "impact": c. Private to "impart": r.

"impact" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC · "impart" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

impact ← imapct · immpact · impacct · impactt · impatc · impcat · imppact · ipmact
impart ← imaprt · immpart · imparrt · impartt · impatr · imppart · imprat · ipmart

Frequency comparison

impact#1,273

impart#25,792

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "impact" and "impart" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "impact" is a noun and "impart" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "impact" or "impart"?

"impact" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,273 in our English list, against #25,792 for "impart". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering impact vs impart

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “impact”; for a verb, it's “impart”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “impact” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable