illsvsipsWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#28,587
“ills” frequency rank
#20,676
“ips” frequency rank
49263
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ills ips
Definition plural of ill Initialism of inch(es) per second.

Letter map: ills vs ips

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

4 ch
ills
3 ch
ips

Grammar separator: ills vs ips

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ills is anoun and ipsasymbol. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49263, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ills is recorded at frequency rank #28,587, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɪlz/. 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 49263, this pair ranks #185,284 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ills vs ips

Shared letters: is. Private to "ills": l. Private to "ips": p.

"ills" · 4 letters · shape VCCC  ·  "ips" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • illsillss · ilsl · lils

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ills" and "ips" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ills" is a noun and "ips" a symbol, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "ills" or "ips" show up more?
"ips" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,676 in our English list, against #28,587 for "ills". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "ills" and "ips". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ills" 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 #185,284 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ills" and "ips" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Ilan vs ills". 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 #185,284 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