inclementvsincrementWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: inclement is a adjective, increment is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“inclement” is an adjective and “increment” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#37,043
“inclement” frequency rank
#30,457
“increment” frequency rank
67500
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature inclement increment
Definition Stormy, of rough weather; not clement. The action of increasing or becoming greater.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set inclement and increment apart are highlighted. They share 8 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

9 ch
inclement
9 ch
increment

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

inclement and increment form a confusable pair in the English index, two distinct headwords that are easily confused because they look alike, sound alike, or both. They differ by a single letter - l in “inclement” becomes r in “increment” - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67500, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

inclement is recorded at frequency rank #37,043, classified as anadj, pronounced /ɪnˈklɛm.ənt/. increment is at rank #30,457, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɪŋkɹɪmn̩t/.

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 67500, this pair ranks #63,060 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Frequency comparison

inclement#37,043
increment#30,457

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "inclement" and "increment" be used interchangeably?
No, "inclement" and "increment" have distinct meanings and cannot be swapped without changing the meaning of a sentence. Understanding the specific definition and context for each word is essential for correct usage.

Remembering inclement vs increment

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list