Incidents vs. Incidence

Another pair of words written and pronounced very similarly is represented by "incidents" and "incidence". But, as in most of the cases, it is also wrong to replace one with the other because their meanings are completely distinct.

The best solution to make sure you never confuse or misspell "incidents" and "incidence" is to quickly recap what each word represents. Let's define again their meanings to make sure everything is clear.

Incidents vs. Incidence

Both "incidents" and "incidence" are nouns, but while the second one is the singular form, the first one is the plural of the noun "incident". They might sound almost identically and their pronunciations might be the most common source of their misspelling, but they define different concepts.

When do we use "incidents"?

"Incidents" is the plural form of the noun "incident", which is defined as an event. More specifically, the word usually refers to a bad or unexpected, unusual event. "Incidents" is a formal word, anyway, as in daily conversation it can often be replaced with "event", "fact", "moment" or other words, according to the context.

Example: Several strange incidents happened in the southern area of the country during the last weeks. - "incidents" is referring to sudden, unusual events

When do we use "incidence"?

"Incidence" is a noun usually used in singular and it refers to how often an incident takes place, how often something (usually something bad) happens.

Example: We observed a high incidence of accidents in this area. - "incidence" is referring to how many accidents took place in a certain area.

Conclusion

Similarity between words' pronunciation and spelling is an often source of confusion and misspellings. But it can be quickly solved by actually understanding those similar words and remembering their meanings. In the case of "incidents" and "incidence", just remember the first one is the plural form of "incident", which refers to a bad, unusual event, while the second one is a singular noun referring to the frequency of a bad event.