Which to use
“impatience” is a noun and “impatient” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #29,691
- “impatience” frequency rank
- #13,933
- “impatient” frequency rank
- 43624
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | impatience | impatient |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The quality of being impatient; lacking patience; restlessness and intolerance of delays; anxiety and eagerness, especially to begin something. | Restless, short of temper, and intolerant of delays. |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set impatience and impatient apart are highlighted. They share 8 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: impatience is /ɪmˈpeɪʃəns/ while impatient is /ɪmˈpeɪʃənt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43624, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
impatience is recorded at frequency rank #29,691, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɪmˈpeɪʃəns/. impatient is at rank #13,933, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ɪmˈpeɪʃənt/.
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 43624, this pair ranks #238,198 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of impatience vs impatient
Shared letters: aeimnpt. Private to "impatience": c. Private to "impatient": -.
"impatience" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVVCCV · "impatient" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- impatience ← imaptience · immpatience · impaitence · impateince · impatiance · impatiecne · impatiencce · impatienec
- impatient ← imaptient · immpatient · impaitent · impateint · impatiennt · impatientt · impatietn · impatinet
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "impatience" and "impatient" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "impatience" or "impatient"?
Remembering impatience vs impatient
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “impatience”; for an adjective, it's “impatient”.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “impatience” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable