ICC vs ice, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“ICC” is a name and “ice” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,257
“ICC” frequency rank: #1,081
“ice” frequency rank: 13338
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ICC	ice
Definition	Initialism of International Criminal Court.	Water in frozen (solid) form.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set ICC and ice apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch

ICC

3 ch

ice

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ICC is /ˈʔajsisi/ while ice is /aɪs/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - c in “ICC” becomes e in “ice”, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13338, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ICC is recorded at frequency rank #12,257, classified as aname, pronounced /ˈʔajsisi/. ice is at rank #1,081, tagged as anoun, pronounced /aɪs/.

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 13338, this pair ranks #476,386 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ICC vs ice

Shared letters: ci. Private to "ICC": -. Private to "ice": e.

"ICC" · 3 letters · shape VCC · "ice" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequency comparison

ICC#12,257

ice#1,081

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ICC" and "ice" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ICC" is a name and "ice" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "ICC" or "ice"?

"ice" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,081 in our English list, against #12,257 for "ICC". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering ICC vs ice

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a name, it's “ICC”; for a noun, it's “ice”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “ICC” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable