Which to use
“impact” is a noun and “intact” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,273
- “impact” frequency rank
- #7,351
- “intact” frequency rank
- 8624
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | impact | intact |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The striking of one body against another; collision. | Left complete or whole; not touched, defiled, sullied, or otherwise damaged. |
Where the eye mixes impact and intact
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: impact vs intact
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: impact is /ˈɪmpækt/ while intact is /ɪnˈtækt/. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8624, 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/. intact is at rank #7,351, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ɪnˈtækt/.
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 8624, this pair ranks #501,565 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of impact vs intact
Shared letters: acit. Private to "impact": mp. Private to "intact": n.
"impact" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC · "intact" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "impact" and "intact" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "impact" or "intact"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "impact" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "intact" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #501,565 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "impact" and "intact" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "indict vs intact". 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 #501,565 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.