idesvsipsTell them apart

Quick tell: ides is a noun, ips is a symbol, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ides” is a noun and “ips” is a symbol - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,856
“ides” frequency rank
#20,676
“ips” frequency rank
65532
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ides ips
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 inch(es) per second.

Letter map: ides vs ips

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

4 ch
ides
3 ch
ips

Role in the sentence - ides and ips

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ides is anoun and ipsasymbol. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65532, 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/. ips is at rank #20,676, tagged as asymbol.

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 65532, this pair ranks #72,288 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ides vs ips

Shared letters: is. Private to "ides": de. Private to "ips": p.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • idesiddes · idess · idse · ieds

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ides" for "ips" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ides" is a noun and "ips" a symbol, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ides" or "ips"?
"ips" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,676 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.

What to do next

Pair "ides" vs "ips" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ides" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ips" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #72,288 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ides" and "ips" 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 #72,288 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