ICC vs iff, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#12,257
“ICC” frequency rank: #45,443
“iff” frequency rank: 57700
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ICC	iff
Definition	Initialism of International Criminal Court.	Abbreviation of if and only if.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set ICC and iff apart are highlighted. They share 1 letter in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch

ICC

3 ch

iff

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ICC is /ˈʔajsisi/ while iff is /ɪf ən(d)ˈəʊn.li ɪf/. 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 conjunction), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57700, 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/. iff is at rank #45,443, tagged as aconj, pronounced /ɪf ən(d)ˈəʊn.li ɪf/.

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 57700, this pair ranks #117,623 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ICC vs iff

Shared letters: i. Private to "ICC": c. Private to "iff": f.

"ICC" · 3 letters · shape VCC · "iff" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequency comparison

ICC#12,257

iff#45,443

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

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

"ICC" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,257 in our English list, against #45,443 for "iff". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering ICC vs iff

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a name, it's “ICC”; for a conjunction, it's “iff”.
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