inducedvsinjuredWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#6,696
“induced” frequency rank
#2,948
“injured” frequency rank
9644
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature induced injured
Definition simple past and past participle of induce simple past and past participle of injure

Where the eye mixes induced and injured

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. induced and injured follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
induced
7 ch
injured

Why the eye confuses induced with injured

A purely visual mix-up. induced (/ɪnˈdust/) and injured (/ˈɪnd͡ʒɚd/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9644, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

induced is recorded at frequency rank #6,696, classified as averb, pronounced /ɪnˈdust/. injured is at rank #2,948, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈɪnd͡ʒɚd/.

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 9644, this pair ranks #496,330 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of induced vs injured

Shared letters: deinu. Private to "induced": c. Private to "injured": jr.

"induced" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC  ·  "injured" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • induced ← idnuced · indcued · indduced · inducced · inducde · inducedd · induecd · innduced
  • injured ← ijnured · injjured · injrued · injuerd · injurde · injuredd · injurred · innjured

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "induced" and "injured" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ɪnˈdust/ versus /ˈɪnd͡ʒɚd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "induced" vs "injured" - which ranks higher?
"injured" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,948 in our English list, against #6,696 for "induced". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "induced" and "injured" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "induced" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "injured" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #496,330 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "induced" and "injured" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "induced vs indulged". 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 #496,330 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