Which to use
“ICAO” is a name and “ices” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #41,186
- “ICAO” frequency rank
- #48,810
- “ices” frequency rank
- 89996
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ICAO | ices |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Acronym of International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations agency headquartered in Montreal, Canada. | plural of ice |
Where the eye mixes ICAO and ices
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. ICAO (VCVV) and ices (VCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses ICAO with ices
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ICAO is /ˌaɪˈkeɪˌoʊ/ while ices is /ˈaɪsɪz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 89996, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ICAO is recorded at frequency rank #41,186, classified as aname, pronounced /ˌaɪˈkeɪˌoʊ/. ices is at rank #48,810, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈaɪsɪz/.
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 89996, this pair ranks #4,585 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of ICAO vs ices
Shared letters: ci. Private to "ICAO": ao. Private to "ices": es.
"ICAO" · 4 letters · shape VCVV · "ices" · 4 letters · shape VCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ICAO" for "ices" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "ICAO" or "ices" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "ICAO" and "ices" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "ICAO" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ices" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #4,585 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ICAO" and "ices" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ices vs ICJ". 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 #4,585 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.