Which to use
“ire” is a noun and “irked” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #21,834
- “ire” frequency rank
- #39,371
- “irked” frequency rank
- 61205
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ire | irked |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Iron. | Annoyed. |
Letter map: ire vs irked
Shared letters muted; letters that set ire and irked apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. ire runs 3 letters (VCV) against irked's 5 (VCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Part-of-speech tell for ire / irked
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ire is anoun and irkedanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61205, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ire is recorded at frequency rank #21,834, classified as anoun, pronounced /aɪ.ɚ/. irked is at rank #39,371, tagged as anadj.
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 61205, this pair ranks #95,565 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of ire vs irked
Shared letters: eir. Private to "ire": -. Private to "irked": dk.
"ire" · 3 letters · shape VCV · "irked" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- irked ← ikred · irekd · irkde · irkedd · irkked · irrked · riked
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "ire" and "irked" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "ire" or "irked"?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ire" and "irked".
- Full dictionary entry for "ire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "irked" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #95,565 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ire" and "irked" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "IED vs irked". 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 #95,565 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.