inflectedvsinflictedTell them apart

Quick tell: inflected is a adjective, inflicted is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“inflected” is an adjective and “inflicted” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#47,688
“inflected” frequency rank
#12,621
“inflicted” frequency rank
60309
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature inflected inflicted
Definition Deviating from a straight line. simple past and past participle of inflict

Letter map: inflected vs inflicted

Shared letters muted; letters that set inflected and inflicted apart highlighted. Shared run: 8. inflected and inflicted follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
inflected
9 ch
inflicted

Role in the sentence - inflected and inflicted

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: inflected is anadjective and inflictedaverb. On the page they differ by a single letter - e in “inflected” becomes i in “inflicted”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60309, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

inflected is recorded at frequency rank #47,688, classified as anadj. inflicted is at rank #12,621, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɪnˈflɪktɪd/.

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 60309, this pair ranks #100,905 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of inflected vs inflicted

Shared letters: cdefilnt. Private to "inflected": -. Private to "inflicted": -.

"inflected" · 9 letters · shape VCCCVCCVC  ·  "inflicted" · 9 letters · shape VCCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • inflected ← ifnlected · infelcted · infflected · inflceted · infleccted · inflecetd · inflectde · inflectedd
  • inflicted ← ifnlicted · infflicted · infilcted · inflcited · infliccted · inflicetd · inflictde · inflictedd

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "inflected" for "inflicted" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "inflected" is an adjective and "inflicted" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "inflected" vs "inflicted" - which ranks higher?
"inflicted" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,621 in our English list, against #47,688 for "inflected". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "inflected" vs "inflicted" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "inflected" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "inflicted" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #100,905 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "inflected" and "inflicted" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "inflated vs inflected". 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 #100,905 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