incidence
/ˈɪn.sɪ.dəns/
"incidence" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“incidence” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #12,258 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #12,258
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 14
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The act of something happening; occurrence.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | incidence |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɪn.sɪ.dəns/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #12,258 |
| Misspellings tracked | 14 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “incidence” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for incidence is 9 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɪn.sɪ.dəns/. Corpus data places it at rank #12,258 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 14 likely wrong-spelling variants for incidence, with forms such as "icnidence", "inccidence", and "incdience". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "incident", "incidents", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle French incidence, from Medieval Latin incidentia (“a falling upon”), from Latin incidens, present participle of incidere (“to fall upon”), from in (“on”) + cadere (“to fall”). The correct English form is incidence, spelled I-N-C-I-D-E-N-C-E.
Definition
- 1The act of something happening; occurrence.
- 2The extent or the relative frequency of something happening.
- 3The manner of falling; bearing or onus, as of a tax that falls unequally.
- 4The striking of radiation or a projectile upon a surface.
- 5A measure of the rate of new occurrence of a given medical condition in a population within a specified period of time.
- 6The falling of a point on a line, or a line on a plane.
- 7The relation between an edge of a graph and one of the vertices it connects.
Etymology
From Middle French incidence, from Medieval Latin incidentia (“a falling upon”), from Latin incidens, present participle of incidere (“to fall upon”), from in (“on”) + cadere (“to fall”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: icnidence,inccidence,incdience,incidance,inciddence,incidecne,incidencce,incidenec,incidennce,incidnece,inciednce,inicdence,inncidence,nicidence
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of incidence - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “incidence”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is I-N-C-I-D-E-N-C-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɪn.sɪ.dəns/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “incident” - see the side-by-side comparison. incidence vs incident
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.