Which to use
“ides” and “items” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #44,856
- “ides” frequency rank
- #1,726
- “items” frequency rank
- 46582
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ides | items |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | plural of item |
Where the eye mixes ides and items
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses ides with items
A purely visual mix-up. ides (/aɪdz/) and items (/ˈaɪ.təmz/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46582, 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/. items is at rank #1,726, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈaɪ.təmz/.
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 46582, this pair ranks #210,381 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ides vs items
Shared letters: eis. Private to "ides": d. Private to "items": mt.
"ides" · 4 letters · shape VCVC · "items" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "ides" and "items" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "ides" vs "items" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "ides" and "items" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "ides" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "items" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #210,381 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ides" and "items" 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 #210,381 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.