intermentvsinternmentTell them apart

Which to use

“interment” and “internment” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#39,369
“interment” frequency rank
#29,323
“internment” frequency rank
68692
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature interment internment
Definition The act of burying a dead body; burial. The state of being imprisoned, usually without trial.

Where the eye mixes interment and internment

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.

9 ch
interment
10 ch
internment

Why the eye confuses interment with internment

A purely visual mix-up. interment (/ɪnˈtɝmənt/) and internment (/ɪnˈtɝnmənt/) 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 68692, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

interment is recorded at frequency rank #39,369, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɪnˈtɝmənt/. internment is at rank #29,323, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɪnˈtɝnmənt/.

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 68692, this pair ranks #57,747 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of interment vs internment

Shared letters: eimnrt. Private to "interment": -. Private to "internment": -.

"interment" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCC  ·  "internment" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • intermentinetrment · innterment · intemrent · interemnt · intermennt · intermentt · intermetn · intermment
  • internmentinetrnment · innternment · intenrment · intermnent · internemnt · internmennt · internmentt · internmetn

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "interment" and "internment" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ɪnˈtɝmənt/ versus /ɪnˈtɝnmənt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "interment" vs "internment" - which ranks higher?
"internment" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,323 in our English list, against #39,369 for "interment". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "interment" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "internment" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #57,747 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "interment" and "internment" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "interment vs intersect". 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 #57,747 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list