Which to use
“interfered” is a verb and “interferon” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #22,123
- “interfered” frequency rank
- #38,912
- “interferon” frequency rank
- 61035
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | interfered | interferon |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of interfere | Any of a group of glycoproteins, produced by the immune system, that prevent viral replication in infected cells. |
Where the eye mixes interfered and interferon
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses interfered with interferon
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: interfered is /ˌɪntɚˈfɪɹd/ while interferon is /ˌɪn.təˈfɪːˌɒn/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61035, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
interfered is recorded at frequency rank #22,123, classified as averb, pronounced /ˌɪntɚˈfɪɹd/. interferon is at rank #38,912, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˌɪn.təˈfɪːˌɒn/.
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 61035, this pair ranks #96,720 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of interfered vs interferon
Shared letters: efinrt. Private to "interfered": d. Private to "interferon": o.
"interfered" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVC · "interferon" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- interfered ← inetrfered · innterfered · intefrered · interefred · interfeerd · interferde · interferedd · interferred
- interferon ← inetrferon · innterferon · intefreron · interefron · interfeorn · interferno · interferonn · interferron
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "interfered" for "interferon" ever safe?
Frequency check: "interfered" vs "interferon" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "interfered" and "interferon" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "interfered" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "interferon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #96,720 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "interfered" and "interferon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "interfered vs interred". 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 #96,720 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.