Which to use
“ich” is a pronoun and “icky” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #21,826
- “ich” frequency rank
- #38,895
- “icky” frequency rank
- 60721
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ich | icky |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | I. | Unpleasantly sticky; yucky; disgusting. |
Where the eye mixes ich and icky
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses ich with icky
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ich is /iːt͡ʃ/ while icky is /ˈɪki/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60721, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ich is recorded at frequency rank #21,826, classified as apron, pronounced /iːt͡ʃ/. icky is at rank #38,895, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈɪki/.
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 60721, this pair ranks #98,459 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of ich vs icky
Shared letters: ci. Private to "ich": h. Private to "icky": ky.
"ich" · 3 letters · shape VCC · "icky" · 4 letters · shape VCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- icky ← ciky · iccky · ickky · ickyy · icyk · ikcy
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ich" for "icky" ever safe?
Frequency check: "ich" vs "icky" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "ich" and "icky" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "ich" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "icky" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #98,459 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ich" and "icky" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ICJ vs icky". 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 #98,459 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.