isvsISISWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: is is a verb, ISIS is an abbrev, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“is” is a verb and “ISIS” is an abbrev - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#478
“is” frequency rank
#7,491
“ISIS” frequency rank
7969
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature is ISIS
Definition [1] umgangssprachlich, dialektal, norddeutsch: 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens des Verbs sein Abkürzung für die Terrorgruppe „Islamischer Staat im Irak und Syrien“ bzw. „Islamischer Staat im Irak und in Syrien“ bzw. „Islamischer Staat im Irak und in (Groß-)Syrien“

Letter map: is vs ISIS

Shared letters muted; letters that set is and ISIS apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

2 ch
is
4 ch
ISIS

Part-of-speech tell for is / ISIS

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: is is averb and ISISanabbrev. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “is” sits inside “ISIS”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7969, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

is is recorded at frequency rank #478, classified as averb, pronounced [ɪs]. ISIS is at rank #7,491, tagged as anabbrev.

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 7969, this pair ranks #1,986,119 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of is vs ISIS

Shared letters: is. Private to "is": -. Private to "ISIS": -.

"is" · 2 letters · shape VC  ·  "ISIS" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ISISiiss · isiss · issi · issis · siis

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "is" for "ISIS" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "is" is a verb and "ISIS" an abbrev, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "is" vs "ISIS" - which ranks higher?
"is" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #478 in our German list, against #7,491 for "ISIS". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "is" and "ISIS". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "is" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ISIS" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,986,119 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "is" and "ISIS" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "IMs vs ISIS". 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 #1,986,119 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