Which to use
“ice” and “itch” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,081
- “ice” frequency rank
- #18,113
- “itch” frequency rank
- 19194
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ice | itch |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Water in frozen (solid) form. | A sensation felt on an area of the skin that causes a person or animal to want to scratch said area. |
Where the eye mixes ice and itch
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses ice with itch
A purely visual mix-up. ice (/aɪs/) and itch (/ɪt͡ʃ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19194, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ice is recorded at frequency rank #1,081, classified as anoun, pronounced /aɪs/. itch is at rank #18,113, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɪt͡ʃ/.
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 19194, this pair ranks #439,844 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of ice vs itch
Shared letters: ci. Private to "ice": e. Private to "itch": ht.
"ice" · 3 letters · shape VCV · "itch" · 4 letters · shape VCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- itch ← icth · itcch · itchh · ithc · ittch · tich
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "ice" and "itch" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "ice" or "itch"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "ice" and "itch" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "ice" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "itch" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #439,844 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ice" and "itch" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "itch vs ith". 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 #439,844 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.