inkvsithWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: ink is a noun, ith is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ink” is a noun and “ith” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,368
“ink” frequency rank
#49,435
“ith” frequency rank
55803
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ink ith
Definition A pigment (or dye)-based fluid used for writing, printing etc. Occurring at position i in a sequence.

Where the eye mixes ink and ith

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
ink
3 ch
ith

Visual trap between ink and ith

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ink is /ˈɪŋk/ while ith is /aɪθ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55803, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ink is recorded at frequency rank #6,368, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɪŋk/. ith is at rank #49,435, tagged as anadj, pronounced /aɪθ/.

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 55803, this pair ranks #130,831 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ink vs ith

Shared letters: i. Private to "ink": kn. Private to "ith": ht.

"ink" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "ith" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ink" and "ith" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ink" is a noun and "ith" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ink" vs "ith" - which ranks higher?
"ink" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,368 in our English list, against #49,435 for "ith". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ink" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ith" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #130,831 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ink" and "ith" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ISR vs ith". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #130,831 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