Which to use
“indefinitely” and “infinitely” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #12,079
- “indefinitely” frequency rank
- #14,771
- “infinitely” frequency rank
- 26850
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | indefinitely | infinitely |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | In a manner that is not definite. | In an infinite manner; as of anything growing without bounds; endlessly. |
Where the eye mixes indefinitely and infinitely
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: indefinitely vs infinitely
A purely visual mix-up. indefinitely (/ɪnˈdɛfɪnɪtli/) and infinitely (/ˈɪnfɪnɪtli/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26850, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
indefinitely is recorded at frequency rank #12,079, classified as anadv, pronounced /ɪnˈdɛfɪnɪtli/. infinitely is at rank #14,771, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈɪnfɪnɪtli/.
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 26850, this pair ranks #383,550 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of indefinitely vs infinitely
Shared letters: efilnty. Private to "indefinitely": d. Private to "infinitely": -.
"indefinitely" · 12 letters · shape VCCVCVCVCVCV · "infinitely" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- indefinitely ← idnefinitely · inddefinitely · indeffinitely · indefiintely · indefinietly · indefinitelly · indefinitelyy · indefiniteyl
- infinitely ← ifninitely · inffinitely · infiintely · infinietly · infinitelly · infinitelyy · infiniteyl · infinitley
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "indefinitely" and "infinitely" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "indefinitely" vs "infinitely" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "indefinitely" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "infinitely" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #383,550 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "indefinitely" and "infinitely" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "indefinite vs indefinitely". 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 #383,550 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.