Which to use
“ibis” is a noun and “its” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #35,763
- “ibis” frequency rank
- #75
- “its” frequency rank
- 35838
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ibis | its |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Any of various long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae, having long downcurved bills used to probe the mud for prey such as crustaceans. | Belonging to it. |
Where the eye mixes ibis and its
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. ibis runs 4 letters (VCVC) against its's 3 (VCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between ibis and its
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ibis is /ˈaɪ.bɪs/ while its is /ɪts/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35838, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ibis is recorded at frequency rank #35,763, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈaɪ.bɪs/. its is at rank #75, tagged as adet, pronounced /ɪts/.
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 35838, this pair ranks #308,491 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ibis vs its
Shared letters: is. Private to "ibis": b. Private to "its": t.
"ibis" · 4 letters · shape VCVC · "its" · 3 letters · shape VCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- ibis ← biis · ibbis · ibiss · ibsi · iibs
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "ibis" and "its" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "ibis" or "its"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "ibis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "its" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #308,491 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ibis" and "its" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ibis vs ices". 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 #308,491 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.