Incite vs. Insight

Just like any other homophones (words that sound alike and have different meanings, but have different spellings), the terms incite and insight sometimes cause confusion among writers. Today, we will determine their difference and how they should be used in a sentence.

The word incite is used as a verb which means “to encourage or stir up violent or unlawful behavior” or “to urge or persuade someone to act in a violent or unlawful way.”

Business leaders concerned ACTU comments could incite violence
The Australian Financial Review

Great Yarmouth man tried to incite teenage girls in America to send him explicit photos
Norfolk Eastern Daily Press

Concordia bomb threat suspect charged with inciting fear of terrorism
Montreal Gazette

On the other hand, the term insight is used as a noun referring to “the capacity to gain an accurate and deep intuitive understanding of a person or thing,” “the power or act of seeing into a situation,” or “the act or result of apprehending the inner nature of things or of seeing intuitively.”

Creativity Weekend workshops inspire insight, imagination and invention
Sarasota Herald Tribune

Building Customer Engagement In The Cognitive Era: Insight From IBM’s Amplify Conference
Forbes

EGYPTAIR chooses SITA airfare insight to manage fare pricing
Travel Daily News International

Now that you’ve known the difference between the two terms, you can try to test your understanding by filling in the blanks below:

1The leader of the protest group tried to ............... a riot by throwing a tomato toward the guest speaker.

2Mary gave her ............... on the issues faced by the current university school council.

3In her speech, the student activist condoned those who ............... violence toward members of minority group.

Hopefully, the discussion above, as well as the exercise, would eliminate the urge to incite violence towards the misuse of the terms now that you have a better insight on how to use them in your writing.