Which to use
“interest” is a noun and “interested” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #695
- “interest” frequency rank
- #1,192
- “interested” frequency rank
- 1887
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | interest | interested |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The price paid for obtaining, or price received for providing, money or goods in a credit transaction, calculated as a fraction of the amount or value of what was borrowed. | Having or showing interest (attention or curiosity). |
Where the eye mixes interest and interested
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between interest and interested
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: interest is /ˈɪn.tɹɛst/ while interested is /ˈɪnt.ə.ɹɪs.tɪd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “interest” sits inside “interested”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1887, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
interest is recorded at frequency rank #695, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɪn.tɹɛst/. interested is at rank #1,192, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈɪnt.ə.ɹɪs.tɪd/.
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 1887, this pair ranks #526,389 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of interest vs interested
Shared letters: einrst. Private to "interest": -. Private to "interested": d.
"interest" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCC · "interested" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- interest ← inetrest · innterest · inteerst · interesst · interestt · interets · interrest · interset
- interested ← inetrested · innterested · inteersted · interesetd · interessted · interestde · interestedd · interestted
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "interest" and "interested" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "interest" or "interested" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "interest" and "interested" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "interest" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "interested" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #526,389 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "interest" and "interested" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "interest vs interment". 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 #526,389 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.