irevsisuWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“ire” and “isu” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#21,834
“ire” frequency rank
#37,989
“isu” frequency rank
59823
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ire isu
Definition Iron. An individual seat in the loft-like balcony of a sumo arena.

Letter map: ire vs isu

Shared letters muted; letters that set ire and isu apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
ire
3 ch
isu

Spelling & dictionary notes on ire vs isu

ire and isu are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59823, 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/. isu is at rank #37,989, tagged as anoun.

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 59823, this pair ranks #103,899 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ire vs isu

Shared letters: i. Private to "ire": er. Private to "isu": su.

"ire" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "isu" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ire" for "isu" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "ire" vs "isu" - which ranks higher?
"ire" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,834 in our English list, against #37,989 for "isu". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "ire" and "isu". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "isu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #103,899 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ire" and "isu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "isu vs ith". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #103,899 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