Which to use
“ies” is a noun and “IMO” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #45,988
- “ies” frequency rank
- #11,045
- “IMO” frequency rank
- 57033
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ies | IMO |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of i, the name of the letter I. | Initialism of International Maritime Organization. |
Letter map: ies vs IMO
Shared letters muted; letters that set ies and IMO apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.
Part-of-speech tell for ies / IMO
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ies is anoun and IMOaname. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57033, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ies is recorded at frequency rank #45,988, classified as anoun. IMO is at rank #11,045, tagged as aname.
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 57033, this pair ranks #122,032 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of ies vs IMO
Shared letters: i. Private to "ies": es. Private to "IMO": mo.
"ies" · 3 letters · shape VVC · "IMO" · 3 letters · shape VCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ies" for "IMO" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "ies" or "IMO" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pair "ies" vs "IMO" 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 "IMO" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #122,032 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ies" and "IMO" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ies vs ith". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #122,032 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.