ISISvsistTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#7,491
“ISIS” frequency rank
#7
“ist” frequency rank
7498
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ISIS ist
Definition 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“ 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens des Verbs sein

Letter map: ISIS vs ist

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

4 ch
ISIS
3 ch
ist

Grammar separator: ISIS vs ist

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ISIS is anabbrev and istaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7498, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

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

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 7498, this pair ranks #1,987,938 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ISIS vs ist

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

"ISIS" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "ist" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ISISiiss · isiss · issi · issis · siis

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ISIS" for "ist" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ISIS" is an abbrev and "ist" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ISIS" or "ist"?
"ist" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7 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

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ISIS" and "ist".

  • Full dictionary entry for "ISIS" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ist" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,987,938 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ISIS" and "ist" 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 #1,987,938 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