ithvsittyWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#49,435
“ith” frequency rank
#48,299
“itty” frequency rank
97734
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ith itty
Definition Occurring at position i in a sequence. Extremely small; itty-bitty.

Where the eye mixes ith and itty

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
ith
4 ch
itty

Visual trap between ith and itty

A purely visual mix-up. ith (/aɪθ/) and itty (/ˈɪti/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 97734, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ith is recorded at frequency rank #49,435, classified as anadj, pronounced /aɪθ/. itty is at rank #48,299, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈɪti/.

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 97734, this pair ranks #253 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ith vs itty

Shared letters: it. Private to "ith": h. Private to "itty": y.

"ith" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "itty" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ittyittyy · ity · ityt

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ith" for "itty" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/aɪθ/ versus /ˈɪti/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "ith" or "itty"?
"itty" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #48,299 in our English list, against #49,435 for "ith". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ith" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "itty" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #253 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ith" and "itty" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ISR vs ith". 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 #253 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