Which to use
“injure” and “inquire” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,392
- “injure” frequency rank
- #17,646
- “inquire” frequency rank
- 38038
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | injure | inquire |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To wound or cause physical harm to a living creature. | To ask (about something). |
Where the eye mixes injure and inquire
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. injure runs 6 letters (VCCVCV) against inquire's 7 (VCCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between injure and inquire
A purely visual mix-up. injure (/ˈɪn.d͡ʒɚ/) and inquire (/ɪnˈkwaɪə/) 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 38038, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
injure is recorded at frequency rank #20,392, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈɪn.d͡ʒɚ/. inquire is at rank #17,646, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɪnˈkwaɪə/.
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 38038, this pair ranks #289,361 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of injure vs inquire
Shared letters: einru. Private to "injure": j. Private to "inquire": q.
"injure" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV · "inquire" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "injure" and "inquire" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "injure" vs "inquire" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "injure" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "inquire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #289,361 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "injure" and "inquire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "injure vs Inoue". 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 #289,361 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.