Which to use
“intended” and “intense” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,045
- “intended” frequency rank
- #3,698
- “intense” frequency rank
- 5743
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | intended | intense |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Planned. | Of a characteristic: extreme or very high or strong in degree; severe; also, excessive, towering. |
Where the eye mixes intended and intense
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. intended runs 8 letters (VCCVCCVC) against intense's 7 (VCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: intended vs intense
A purely visual mix-up. intended (/ɪnˈtɛndɪd/) and intense (/ɪnˈtɛns/) 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 5743, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
intended is recorded at frequency rank #2,045, classified as anadj, pronounced /ɪnˈtɛndɪd/. intense is at rank #3,698, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ɪnˈtɛns/.
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 5743, this pair ranks #514,157 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of intended vs intense
Shared letters: eint. Private to "intended": d. Private to "intense": s.
"intended" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC · "intense" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "intended" and "intense" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "intended" vs "intense" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "intended" and "intense" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "intended" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "intense" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #514,157 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "intended" and "intense" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "indented vs intended". 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 #514,157 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.