interrogationvsinterrogatorWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#13,738
“interrogation” frequency rank
#48,295
“interrogator” frequency rank
62033
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature interrogation interrogator
Definition The act of interrogating or questioning; an examination by questions; an inquiry. One who interrogates; a person who asks questions, especially one who is adversarial.

Letter map: interrogation vs interrogator

Shared letters muted; letters that set interrogation and interrogator apart highlighted. Shared run: 11.

13 ch
interrogation
12 ch
interrogator

Pair insight - interrogation / interrogator

interrogation and interrogator are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62033, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

interrogation is recorded at frequency rank #13,738, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɪnˌteɹ.əˈɡeɪ.ʃən/. interrogator is at rank #48,295, tagged as anoun.

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 62033, this pair ranks #90,748 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of interrogation vs interrogator

Shared letters: aeginort. Private to "interrogation": -. Private to "interrogator": -.

"interrogation" · 13 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVCVVC  ·  "interrogator" · 12 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • interrogationinetrrogation · innterrogation · interogation · interorgation · interrgoation · interroagtion · interrogaiton · interrogasion
  • interrogatorinetrrogator · innterrogator · interogator · interorgator · interrgoator · interroagtor · interrogaotr · interrogatorr

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "interrogation" for "interrogator" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "interrogation" vs "interrogator" - which ranks higher?
"interrogation" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,738 in our English list, against #48,295 for "interrogator". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "interrogation" and "interrogator". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "interrogation" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "interrogator" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #90,748 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "interrogation" and "interrogator" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "interrogate vs interrogator". 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 #90,748 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