Embed vs imbed

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Grammarist

Grammarist

Imbed is just a variation in spelling of embed, which means to put something inside something else, usually deep so it will not come loose.

Its derivatives include embedded, embedding, and embedment. The spelling variation continues through all forms: imbedded, imbedding, and imbedment. (The last imbedment is almost obsolete.)

The spelling is so preferred that it is advisable to use simply to avoid having your readers think you misspelled.

Examples

Apple’s plans to embed its own Sim cards in the latest line of iPads will move the company nearer to a long-held ambition to kill off the hard square of plastic that has tied mobile users to their network operators. [Financial Times]

Someone in the White House Press Corp should really ask Josh Earnest if American Forward Air Controllers have been imbedded or if there are plans to imbed them in Iranian military units operating in Iraq. [Huffington Post]

An all-deaf team of entrepreneurs from the Rochester Institute of Technology is hoping to bridge that gap with the MotionSavvy Uni, a tablet case embedded with Leap Motion’s gesture-sensing technology. [CNET]

Allegations also include that according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the most serious side effects associated with the Mirena IUD are perforation of the uterine wall, embedment of the device in the uterine wall, intrauterine pregnancy, ectopic pregnancy, Group A streptococcal sepsis, pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), ovarian cysts, and breast cancer. [PR Web]

The length of imbedment also varies with the working stress in the steel in tension or compression. [Taylor]

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