injectvsinspectWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#16,254
“inject” frequency rank
#12,445
“inspect” frequency rank
28699
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature inject inspect
Definition To push or pump (something, especially fluids) into a cavity or passage. To examine critically or carefully; especially, to search out problems or determine condition; to scrutinize.

Where the eye mixes inject and inspect

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. inject runs 6 letters (VCCVCC) against inspect's 7 (VCCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
inject
7 ch
inspect

Look-alike desk: inject vs inspect

A purely visual mix-up. inject (/ɪnˈd͡ʒɛkt/) and inspect (/ɪnˈspɛkt/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28699, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

inject is recorded at frequency rank #16,254, classified as averb, pronounced /ɪnˈd͡ʒɛkt/. inspect is at rank #12,445, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɪnˈspɛkt/.

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 28699, this pair ranks #369,012 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of inject vs inspect

Shared letters: ceint. Private to "inject": j. Private to "inspect": ps.

"inject" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC  ·  "inspect" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • inject ← ijnect · inejct · injcet · injecct · injectt · injetc · injject · innject
  • inspect ← innspect · inpsect · insepct · inspcet · inspecct · inspectt · inspetc · insppect

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "inject" and "inspect" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ɪnˈd͡ʒɛkt/ versus /ɪnˈspɛkt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "inject" or "inspect"?
"inspect" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,445 in our English list, against #16,254 for "inject". 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 "inject" and "inspect" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "inject" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "inspect" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #369,012 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "inject" and "inspect" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "inject vs invert". 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 #369,012 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