Which to use
“incurred” is a verb and “insured” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,994
- “incurred” frequency rank
- #11,400
- “insured” frequency rank
- 24394
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | incurred | insured |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of incur | Covered by an insurance policy. |
Where the eye mixes incurred and insured
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. incurred runs 8 letters (VCCVCCVC) against insured's 7 (VCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between incurred and insured
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: incurred is /ɪnˈkɝd/ while insured is /ɪnˈʃʊəd/. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24394, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
incurred is recorded at frequency rank #12,994, classified as averb, pronounced /ɪnˈkɝd/. insured is at rank #11,400, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ɪnˈʃʊəd/.
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 24394, this pair ranks #402,267 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of incurred vs insured
Shared letters: deinru. Private to "incurred": c. Private to "insured": s.
"incurred" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC · "insured" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "incurred" for "insured" ever safe?
Frequency check: "incurred" vs "insured" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "incurred" and "insured" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "incurred" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "insured" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #402,267 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "incurred" and "insured" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "incurred vs interred". 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 #402,267 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.