incurredvsinterredTell them apart

Which to use

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

#12,994
“incurred” frequency rank
#37,519
“interred” frequency rank
50513
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature incurred interred
Definition simple past and past participle of incur simple past and past participle of inter

Letter map: incurred vs interred

Shared letters muted; letters that set incurred and interred apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. incurred and interred follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
incurred
8 ch
interred

Pair insight - incurred / interred

incurred and interred 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50513, 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/. interred is at rank #37,519, tagged as averb.

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 50513, this pair ranks #173,592 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of incurred vs interred

Shared letters: deinr. Private to "incurred": cu. Private to "interred": t.

"incurred" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC  ·  "interred" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • incurred ← icnurred · inccurred · incrured · incured · incurerd · incurrde · incurredd · inncurred
  • interred ← inetrred · innterred · intered · intererd · interrde · interredd · intrered · intterred

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "incurred" and "interred" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary English text, does "incurred" or "interred" show up more?
"incurred" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,994 in our English list, against #37,519 for "interred". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "incurred" and "interred".

  • Full dictionary entry for "incurred" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "interred" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #173,592 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "incurred" and "interred" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "intercede 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 #173,592 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list