Which to use
“ices” and “ides” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,810
- “ices” frequency rank
- #44,856
- “ides” frequency rank
- 93666
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ices | ides |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of ice | The notional full-moon day of a Roman month, occurring on the 15th day of the four original 31-day months (March, May, Quintilis or July, and October) and on the 13th day of all other months. |
Where the eye mixes ices and ides
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. ices and ides follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: ices vs ides
A purely visual mix-up. ices (/ˈaɪsɪz/) and ides (/aɪdz/) 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 a single letter - c in “ices” becomes d in “ides”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 93666, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ices is recorded at frequency rank #48,810, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈaɪsɪz/. ides is at rank #44,856, tagged as anoun, pronounced /aɪdz/.
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 93666, this pair ranks #1,750 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of ices vs ides
Shared letters: eis. Private to "ices": c. Private to "ides": d.
"ices" · 4 letters · shape VCVC · "ides" · 4 letters · shape VCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "ices" and "ides" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "ices" vs "ides" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "ices" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ides" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,750 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ices" and "ides" 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 #1,750 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.