# infection vs infectious

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### infection
*noun · IPA /ɪnˈfɛkʃən/ · frequency rank #4,093*
The act or process of infecting.

### infectious
*adjective · IPA /ɪnˈfɛk.ʃəs/ · frequency rank #9,481*
Caused by an agent that enters the host's body (such as a bacterium, virus, parasite, or prion); often, also, transmitted among hosts via any of various routes (for example, contact, droplet-borne, airborne, waterborne, foodborne, fomite-borne, or bloodborne).

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/infection-vs-infectious