IconvsIconsConfusable pair

Which to use

“Icon” and “Icons” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#23,993
“Icon” frequency rank
#47,495
“Icons” frequency rank
71488
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Icon Icons
Definition kleine Grafik für Programme oder Hyperlinks Genitiv Singular des Substantivs Icon

Where the eye mixes Icon and Icons

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Icon runs 4 letters (VCVC) against Icons's 5 (VCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
Icon
5 ch
Icons

Look-alike desk: Icon vs Icons

A purely visual mix-up. Icon ([ˈaɪ̯kn̩]) and Icons ([ˈaɪ̯kn̩s]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “Icon” sits inside “Icons”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71488, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Icon is recorded at frequency rank #23,993, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈaɪ̯kn̩]. Icons is at rank #47,495, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈaɪ̯kn̩s].

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 71488, this pair ranks #415,308 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Icon vs Icons

Shared letters: cino. Private to "Icon": -. Private to "Icons": s.

"Icon" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "Icons" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Icon ← cion · iccon · icno · iconn · iocn
  • Icons ← iccons · icnos · iconns · iconss · icosn · iocns

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Icon" and "Icons" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈaɪ̯kn̩] versus [ˈaɪ̯kn̩s]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Icon" vs "Icons" - which ranks higher?
"Icon" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,993 in our German list, against #47,495 for "Icons". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Icon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Icons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #415,308 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Icon" and "Icons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Icons vs Irans". 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 #415,308 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list