idesvsILSConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#44,856
“ides” frequency rank
#39,360
“ILS” frequency rank
84216
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ides ILS
Definition 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. Initialism of instrument landing system.

Letter map: ides vs ILS

Shared letters muted; letters that set ides and ILS apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
ides
3 ch
ILS

Corpus notes: ides and ILS

ides and ILS are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 84216, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ides is recorded at frequency rank #44,856, classified as anoun, pronounced /aɪdz/. ILS is at rank #39,360, tagged as anoun.

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 84216, this pair ranks #12,480 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ides vs ILS

Shared letters: is. Private to "ides": de. Private to "ILS": l.

"ides" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "ILS" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • idesiddes · idess · idse · ieds

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ides" and "ILS" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary English text, does "ides" or "ILS" show up more?
"ILS" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #39,360 in our English list, against #44,856 for "ides". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ides" and "ILS".

  • Full dictionary entry for "ides" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ILS" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #12,480 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ides" and "ILS" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ices vs ides". 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 #12,480 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list