IlmvsissWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Ilm is a name, iss is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Ilm” is a name and “iss” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,185
“Ilm” frequency rank
#6,551
“iss” frequency rank
40736
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Ilm iss
Definition ein Fluss in Deutschland, Nebenfluss der Saale 2. Person Singular Imperativ des Verbs essen

Letter map: Ilm vs iss

Shared letters muted; letters that set Ilm and iss apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
Ilm
3 ch
iss

Part-of-speech tell for Ilm / iss

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Ilm is aname and issaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40736, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Ilm is recorded at frequency rank #34,185, classified as aname, pronounced […]. iss is at rank #6,551, tagged as averb, pronounced [ɪs].

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 40736, this pair ranks #1,499,848 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Ilm vs iss

Shared letters: i. Private to "Ilm": lm. Private to "iss": s.

"Ilm" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "iss" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Ilm" and "iss" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Ilm" is a name and "iss" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Ilm" or "iss" show up more?
"iss" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,551 in our German list, against #34,185 for "Ilm". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "Ilm" vs "iss" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Ilm" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "iss" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,499,848 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Ilm" and "iss" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Ilm vs puzzles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,499,848 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