ibis
/ˈaɪ.bɪs/
"ibis" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ibis” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #35,763 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #35,763
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Any of various long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae, having long downcurved bills used to probe the mud for prey such as crustaceans.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ibis |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈaɪ.bɪs/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #35,763 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ibis” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for ibis is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈaɪ.bɪs/. Corpus data places it at rank #35,763 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Any of various long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae, having long downcurved bills used to probe the mud for prey such as crustaceans.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for ibis, with forms such as "biis", "ibbis", and "ibiss". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "is", "II", "its", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Mentioned in the Wycliffe Bible as ybyn or ibin, as ibys from 16th century and ibis shortly after. From Latin ībis, from Ancient Greek ἶβις (îbis), from Egyptian h-b-G26 (hbj) (compare Coptic ϩⲓⲃⲱⲓ (hibōi) or ϩⲓⲡ (hip)). The correct English form is ibis, spelled I-B-I-S.
Definition
- 1Any of various long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae, having long downcurved bills used to probe the mud for prey such as crustaceans.
Etymology
Mentioned in the Wycliffe Bible as ybyn or ibin, as ibys from 16th century and ibis shortly after. From Latin ībis, from Ancient Greek ἶβις (îbis), from Egyptian h-b-G26 (hbj) (compare Coptic ϩⲓⲃⲱⲓ (hibōi) or ϩⲓⲡ (hip)).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: biis,ibbis,ibiss,ibsi,iibs
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of ibis - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “ibis”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is I-B-I-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈaɪ.bɪs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “is” - see the side-by-side comparison. ibis vs is
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.