Which to use
“incur” and “injure” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,620
- “incur” frequency rank
- #20,392
- “injure” frequency rank
- 40012
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | incur | injure |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To bring upon oneself or expose oneself to, especially something inconvenient, harmful, or onerous; to become liable or subject to. | To wound or cause physical harm to a living creature. |
Where the eye mixes incur and injure
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. incur runs 5 letters (VCCVC) against injure's 6 (VCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses incur with injure
A purely visual mix-up. incur (/ɪnˈkɜː/) and injure (/ˈɪn.d͡ʒɚ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40012, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
incur is recorded at frequency rank #19,620, classified as averb, pronounced /ɪnˈkɜː/. injure is at rank #20,392, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈɪn.d͡ʒɚ/.
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 40012, this pair ranks #271,463 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of incur vs injure
Shared letters: inru. Private to "incur": c. Private to "injure": ej.
"incur" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC · "injure" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "incur" and "injure" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "incur" or "injure"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "incur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "injure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #271,463 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "incur" and "injure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "injure vs Inoue". 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 #271,463 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.