incidence and incidents - the difference

by Craig Shrives
The Quick Answer
Incidence is a proportion (usually of society in relation to a disease).
An incident is an event.
Got it? Take a quick test.

Incidence

The noun incidence is very technical and quite rare (unless you study the spread of disease). It relates to the chance of developing some new condition (usually a disease) within a specified time period.

Examples:
  • The chart 'Incidence of Flu by Area' shows the number of people with flu and flu-like illnesses who visited their doctor last week.
  • They suffer a higher incidence of measles as they did not invest in health-care systems to deliver vaccinations effectively.

Incidents

The word incidents is the plural of incident, which means an occurrence or an event.

Examples:
  • There is no evidence to link the two incidents at this time.
  • The police are investigating two incidents of someone shooting into occupied homes.
Interactive Exercise
Here are three randomly selected questions from a larger exercise, which can be edited, printed to create an exercise worksheet, or sent via email to friends or students.

Help Us To Improve Grammar Monster

  • Do you disagree with something on this page?
  • Did you spot a typo?
Please tell us using this form.

See Also

adverse or averse? affect or effect? appraise or apprise? avenge or revenge? bare or bear? complement or compliment? dependant or dependent? discreet or discrete? disinterested or uninterested? e.g. or i.e.? envy or jealousy? imply or infer? its or it's? material or materiel? poisonous or venomous? practice or practise? principal or principle? tenant or tenet? who's or whose? What are nouns? What are verbs? List of easily confused words