iOS vs it's, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“iOS” is a name and “it's” is a contraction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,888
“iOS” frequency rank: #55
“it's” frequency rank: 5943
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	iOS	it's
Definition	A mobile operating system (OS) created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware.	Contraction of it + is.

Letter map: iOS vs it's

Shared letters muted; letters that set iOS and it's apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch

iOS

4 ch

it's

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: iOS is aname and it'sacontraction. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5943, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

iOS is recorded at frequency rank #5,888, classified as aname. it's is at rank #55, tagged as acontraction, pronounced /ɪts/.

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 5943, this pair ranks #513,403 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of iOS vs it's

Shared letters: is. Private to "iOS": o. Private to "it's": t.

"iOS" · 3 letters · shape VVC · "it's" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "iOS" and "it's" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "iOS" is a name and "it's" a contraction, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "iOS" or "it's"?

"it's" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #55 in our English list, against #5,888 for "iOS". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.