icesvsitemWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“ices” and “item” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#48,810
“ices” frequency rank
#2,629
“item” frequency rank
51439
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ices item
Definition plural of ice A distinct physical object.

Where the eye mixes ices and item

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
ices
4 ch
item

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. ices (/ˈaɪsɪz/) and item (/ˈaɪ.təm/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51439, 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/. item is at rank #2,629, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈaɪ.təm/.

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 51439, this pair ranks #165,490 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ices vs item

Shared letters: ei. Private to "ices": cs. Private to "item": mt.

"ices" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "item" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • icescies · icces · icess · icse · iecs
  • itemietm · itemm · ittem

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ices" and "item" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈaɪsɪz/ versus /ˈaɪ.təm/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "ices" or "item"?
"item" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,629 in our English list, against #48,810 for "ices". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list