induirevsinjureWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: induire is a verb, injure is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“induire” is a verb and “injure” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#21,659
“induire” frequency rank
#19,320
“injure” frequency rank
40979
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature induire injure
Definition Porter, pousser à faire quelque chose. Insulte, outrage, ou de fait, ou de parole, ou par écrit.

Where the eye mixes induire and injure

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. induire runs 7 letters (VCCVVCV) against injure's 6 (VCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
induire
6 ch
injure

Visual trap between induire and injure

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: induire is \ɛ̃.dɥiʁ\ while injure is \ɛ̃.ʒyʁ\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40979, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

induire is recorded at frequency rank #21,659, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.dɥiʁ\. injure is at rank #19,320, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.ʒyʁ\.

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 40979, this pair ranks #236,497 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of induire vs injure

Shared letters: einru. Private to "induire": d. Private to "injure": j.

"induire" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCV  ·  "injure" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • induire ← idnuire · indduire · indiure · induier · induirre · indurie · innduire · inudire
  • injure ← ijnure · injjure · injrue · injuer · injurre · innjure · inujre · nijure

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "induire" and "injure" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "induire" is a verb and "injure" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "induire" vs "injure" - which ranks higher?
"injure" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,320 in our French list, against #21,659 for "induire". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "induire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "injure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #236,497 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "induire" and "injure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "infuse vs injure". 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 #236,497 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