impact vs import, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“impact” is a noun and “import” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,695
“impact” frequency rank: #30,204
“import” frequency rank: 42899
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	impact	import
Definition	impacto	de importação

Letter map: impact vs import

Shared letters muted; letters that set impact and import apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch

impact

6 ch

import

Role in the sentence - impact and import

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: impact is anoun and importanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42899, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

impact is recorded at frequency rank #12,695, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɪmpækt/. import is at rank #30,204, tagged as anadj.

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 42899, this pair ranks #22,813 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of impact vs import

Shared letters: impt. Private to "impact": ac. Private to "import": or.

"impact" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC · "import" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

impact ← imapct · immpact · impacct · impactt · impatc · impcat · imppact · ipmact
import ← immport · imoprt · imporrt · importt · impotr · impport · improt · ipmort

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "impact" for "import" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "impact" is a noun and "import" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "impact" or "import" show up more?

"impact" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,695 in our Portuguese list, against #30,204 for "import". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "impact" and "import".

Full dictionary entry for "impact" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "import" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #22,813 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"impact" and "import" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "import vs impuro". 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 #22,813 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.