Which to use
“ies” and “ills” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #45,988
- “ies” frequency rank
- #28,587
- “ills” frequency rank
- 74575
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ies | ills |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of i, the name of the letter I. | plural of ill |
Letter map: ies vs ills
Shared letters muted; letters that set ies and ills apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. ies runs 3 letters (VVC) against ills's 4 (VCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Spelling & dictionary notes on ies vs ills
ies and ills 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 74575, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ies is recorded at frequency rank #45,988, classified as anoun. ills is at rank #28,587, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɪlz/.
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 74575, this pair ranks #35,925 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of ies vs ills
Shared letters: is. Private to "ies": e. Private to "ills": l.
"ies" · 3 letters · shape VVC · "ills" · 4 letters · shape VCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- ills ← illss · ilsl · lils
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "ies" and "ills" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "ies" vs "ills" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pair "ies" vs "ills" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "ies" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ills" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #35,925 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ies" and "ills" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ies vs ith". 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 #35,925 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.