int'lvsintroWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: int'l is a adjective, intro is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“int'l” is an adjective and “intro” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#37,518
“int'l” frequency rank
#9,487
“intro” frequency rank
47005
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature int'l intro
Definition Abbreviation of international. An introduction.

Letter map: int'l vs intro

Shared letters muted; letters that set int'l and intro apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. int'l runs 4 letters (VCCC) against intro's 5 (VCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
int'l
5 ch
intro

Role in the sentence - int'l and intro

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: int'l is anadjective and introanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47005, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

int'l is recorded at frequency rank #37,518, classified as anadj. intro is at rank #9,487, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɪntɹoʊ/.

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 47005, this pair ranks #206,461 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of int'l vs intro

Shared letters: int. Private to "int'l": l. Private to "intro": or.

"int'l" · 4 letters · shape VCCC  ·  "intro" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • intro ← inntro · inrto · intor · intrro · inttro · itnro

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "int'l" for "intro" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "int'l" is an adjective and "intro" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "int'l" vs "intro" - which ranks higher?
"intro" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,487 in our English list, against #37,518 for "int'l". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "int'l" vs "intro" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "int'l" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "intro" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #206,461 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "int'l" and "intro" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "int'l vs INTHE". 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 #206,461 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