dry ice

noun

"dry-ice" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“dry ice” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
7
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Carbon dioxide frozen in the solid state, used especially as a cooling agent and for the production of fog-like special effects. It sublimes at −78.5 °C (−109.3 °F) at normal atmospheric pressure.

Corpus desk

Index EN-dry-ice · dry ice · English

dry ice · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "D" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for dry ice
PropertyValue
Headworddry ice
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters7
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “dry ice” in English

dry icefalls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

dry ice is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Carbon dioxide frozen in the solid state, used especially as a cooling agent and for the production of fog-like special effects. It sublimes at −78.5 °C (−109.3 °F) at normal atmospheric pressure.".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for dry ice, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: A genericised trademark of the DryIce Corporation of America. The correct English form is dry ice, spelled D-R-Y- -I-C-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Carbon dioxide frozen in the solid state, used especially as a cooling agent and for the production of fog-like special effects. It sublimes at −78.5 °C (−109.3 °F) at normal atmospheric pressure.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how dry ice appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Two women were found unresponsive in a car along with the likely culprit – four coolers of dry ice – Friday morning in Pierce County, Washington, CNN affiliate KOMO reports.

Etymology

A genericised trademark of the DryIce Corporation of America.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "dry ice"?
"dry ice" is spelled D-R-Y- -I-C-E.
What does "dry ice" mean?
As a noun, "dry ice" means: Carbon dioxide frozen in the solid state, used especially as a cooling agent and for the production of fog-like special effects. It sublimes at −78.5 °C (−109.3 °F) at normal atmospheric pressure.
What is the origin of the word "dry ice"?
A genericised trademark of the DryIce Corporation of America. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list