Which to use
“inmate” and “intake” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,143
- “inmate” frequency rank
- #7,352
- “intake” frequency rank
- 21495
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | inmate | intake |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A person confined to an institution such as a prison (as a convict) or hospital (as a patient). | The place where water, air or other fluid is taken into a pipe or conduit; opposed to outlet. |
Where the eye mixes inmate and intake
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. inmate and intake follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: inmate vs intake
A purely visual mix-up. inmate (/ˈɪn.meɪt/) and intake (/ˈɪnteɪk/) 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 21495, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
inmate is recorded at frequency rank #14,143, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɪn.meɪt/. intake is at rank #7,352, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɪnteɪk/.
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 21495, this pair ranks #423,508 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of inmate vs intake
Shared letters: aeint. Private to "inmate": m. Private to "intake": k.
"inmate" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV · "intake" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "inmate" for "intake" ever safe?
Frequency check: "inmate" vs "intake" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "inmate" and "intake" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "inmate" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "intake" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #423,508 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "inmate" and "intake" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "inane vs inmate". 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 #423,508 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.