incisionvsincursionTell them apart

Which to use

“incision” and “incursion” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#29,392
“incision” frequency rank
#25,009
“incursion” frequency rank
54401
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature incision incursion
Definition Action d’inciser ou résultat de cette action. Brusque irruption de gens de guerre sur un territoire ennemi.

Where the eye mixes incision and incursion

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

8 ch
incision
9 ch
incursion

Visual trap between incision and incursion

A purely visual mix-up. incision (\ɛ̃.si.zjɔ̃\) and incursion (\ɛ̃.kyʁ.sjɔ̃\) 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 54401, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

incision is recorded at frequency rank #29,392, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.si.zjɔ̃\. incursion is at rank #25,009, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.kyʁ.sjɔ̃\.

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 54401, this pair ranks #134,283 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of incision vs incursion

Shared letters: cinos. Private to "incision": -. Private to "incursion": ru.

"incision" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVVC  ·  "incursion" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • incisionicnision · inccision · inciison · incisino · incisionn · incisoin · incission · incsiion
  • incursionicnursion · inccursion · incrusion · incurison · incurrsion · incursino · incursionn · incursoin

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "incision" and "incursion" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ̃.si.zjɔ̃\ versus \ɛ̃.kyʁ.sjɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "incision" or "incursion"?
"incursion" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,009 in our French list, against #29,392 for "incision". 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 "incision" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "incursion" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #134,283 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "incision" and "incursion" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "incisif vs incision". 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 #134,283 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list