Which to use
“Isis” is a name and “its” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,536
- “Isis” frequency rank
- #75
- “its” frequency rank
- 4611
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Isis | its |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An ancient Egyptian goddess, the wife of Osiris and mother of Horus, worshiped as the ideal mother and wife and as the matron of nature and magic; also worshiped by (some) Greeks during the Hellenistic period and featured in Greek mythology, and by Romans involved in what was categorized as the Cult of Isis. | Belonging to it. |
Where the eye mixes Isis and its
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between Isis and its
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Isis is /ˈaɪ.sɪs/ while its is /ɪts/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4611, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Isis is recorded at frequency rank #4,536, classified as aname, pronounced /ˈaɪ.sɪs/. its is at rank #75, tagged as adet, 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 4611, this pair ranks #518,319 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of Isis vs its
Shared letters: is. Private to "Isis": -. Private to "its": t.
"Isis" · 4 letters · shape VCVC · "its" · 3 letters · shape VCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- Isis ← iiss · isiss · issi · issis · siis
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Isis" for "its" ever safe?
Which is more common, "Isis" or "its"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "Isis" and "its" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "Isis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "its" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #518,319 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Isis" and "its" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Isis vs ISR". 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 #518,319 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.