Which to use
“incidence” is a noun and “incident” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,338
- “incidence” frequency rank
- #4,243
- “incident” frequency rank
- 14581
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | incidence | incident |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Rencontre d’une ligne ou d’une surface avec une autre ligne ou surface, la concurrence étant l’incidence spéciale ligne sur ligne. | Qui survient accessoirement dans une affaire. |
Where the eye mixes incidence and incident
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. incidence runs 9 letters (VCCVCVCCV) against incident's 8 (VCCVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses incidence with incident
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: incidence is \ɛ̃.si.dɑ̃s\ while incident is \ɛ̃.si.dɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14581, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
incidence is recorded at frequency rank #10,338, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.si.dɑ̃s\. incident is at rank #4,243, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.si.dɑ̃\.
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 14581, this pair ranks #396,050 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of incidence vs incident
Shared letters: cdein. Private to "incidence": -. Private to "incident": t.
"incidence" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVCCV · "incident" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "incidence" and "incident" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "incidence" or "incident"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "incidence" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "incident" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #396,050 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "incidence" and "incident" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "incidence vs indigence". 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 #396,050 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.