incensed vs intense, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#37,042
“incensed” frequency rank: #3,698
“intense” frequency rank: 40740
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	incensed	intense
Definition	Enraged; infuriated; spitefully or furiously angry.	Of a characteristic: extreme or very high or strong in degree; severe; also, excessive, towering.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set incensed and intense apart are highlighted. They share 6 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

8 ch

incensed

7 ch

intense

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

incensed and intense are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40740, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

incensed is recorded at frequency rank #37,042, classified as anadj. intense is at rank #3,698, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ɪnˈtɛns/.

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 40740, this pair ranks #264,813 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of incensed vs intense

Shared letters: eins. Private to "incensed": cd. Private to "intense": t.

"incensed" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC · "intense" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

incensed ← icnensed · inccensed · incenesd · incennsed · incensde · incensedd · incenssed · incesned
intense ← inetnse · inntense · intenes · intennse · intensse · intesne · intnese · inttense

Frequency comparison

incensed#37,042

intense#3,698

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "incensed" and "intense" be used interchangeably?

No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.

Which is more common, "incensed" or "intense"?

"intense" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,698 in our English list, against #37,042 for "incensed". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering incensed vs intense

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “incensed” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable