Which to use
“interfere” and “interfered” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,559
- “interfere” frequency rank
- #22,123
- “interfered” frequency rank
- 30682
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | interfere | interfered |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To get involved or involve oneself, causing disturbance. | simple past and past participle of interfere |
Where the eye mixes interfere and interfered
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses interfere with interfered
A purely visual mix-up. interfere (/ˌɪn.tɚˈfɪɚ/) and interfered (/ˌɪntɚˈfɪɹd/) 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 extra letter(s) - “interfere” sits inside “interfered”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30682, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
interfere is recorded at frequency rank #8,559, classified as averb, pronounced /ˌɪn.tɚˈfɪɚ/. interfered is at rank #22,123, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˌɪntɚˈfɪɹd/.
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 30682, this pair ranks #352,492 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of interfere vs interfered
Shared letters: efinrt. Private to "interfere": -. Private to "interfered": d.
"interfere" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCV · "interfered" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- interfere ← inetrfere · innterfere · intefrere · interefre · interfeer · interferre · interffere · interfree
- interfered ← inetrfered · innterfered · intefrered · interefred · interfeerd · interferde · interferedd · interferred
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "interfere" and "interfered" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "interfere" or "interfered" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "interfere" and "interfered" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "interfere" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "interfered" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #352,492 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "interfere" and "interfered" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "interfered vs interferon". 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 #352,492 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.