IBAvsithWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: IBA is a name, ith is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“IBA” is a name and “ith” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#35,762
“IBA” frequency rank
#49,435
“ith” frequency rank
85197
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature IBA ith
Definition Initialism of International Bartenders Association. Occurring at position i in a sequence.

Letter map: IBA vs ith

Shared letters muted; letters that set IBA and ith apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. IBA (VCV) and ith (VCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

3 ch
IBA
3 ch
ith

Role in the sentence - IBA and ith

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: IBA is aname and ithanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 85197, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

IBA is recorded at frequency rank #35,762, classified as aname. ith is at rank #49,435, tagged as anadj, pronounced /aɪθ/.

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 85197, this pair ranks #10,776 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of IBA vs ith

Shared letters: i. Private to "IBA": ab. Private to "ith": ht.

"IBA" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "ith" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "IBA" for "ith" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "IBA" is a name and "ith" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "IBA" or "ith" show up more?
"IBA" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,762 in our English list, against #49,435 for "ith". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "IBA" and "ith". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "IBA" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ith" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #10,776 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "IBA" and "ith" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ISR vs ith". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #10,776 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list