Which to use
“italic” is an adjective and “italics” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #40,301
- “italic” frequency rank
- #24,206
- “italics” frequency rank
- 64507
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | italic | italics |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Designed to resemble a handwriting style developed in Italy in the 16th century. | Letters in an italic typeface. |
Letter map: italic vs italics
Shared letters muted; letters that set italic and italics apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. italic runs 6 letters (VCVCVC) against italics's 7 (VCVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Part-of-speech tell for italic / italics
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: italic is anadjective and italicsanoun. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “italic” sits inside “italics”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64507, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
italic is recorded at frequency rank #40,301, classified as anadj, pronounced /ɪˈtælɪk/. italics is at rank #24,206, 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 64507, this pair ranks #77,392 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of italic vs italics
Shared letters: acilt. Private to "italic": -. Private to "italics": s.
"italic" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC · "italics" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "italic" and "italics" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "italic" vs "italics" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "italic" and "italics".
- Full dictionary entry for "italic" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "italics" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #77,392 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "italic" and "italics" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Italia vs italic". 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 #77,392 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.