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PlainSpell

ice

/aɪs/noun, verb

ice is spelled I-C-E: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 100 times per million words in written English, the 1,076th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, ice means “Water in frozen (solid) form” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of ice is ices.

How many letters and syllables are in ice?

Letters3: I-C-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing100 times per million words; the 1,076th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is ice?

Ice appears 100 times per million words in written English, the 1,076th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce ice?

  • US /aɪs/
  • [ʌɪs]

Ice has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-ice.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Back_ache-ice.wav, En-au-ICE.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with ice?

9 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as ice from its last stressed vowel (/aɪs/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of ice

  • ices plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • icing participle, present
  • iced participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does ice mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    Water in frozen (solid) form.

    He said, “Where we’re at right now was back in 2008 all covered with ice. From here to there at the side, the glacier shrank about 20 to 30 meters.”

  2. 2

    Any frozen volatile chemical, such as ammonia or carbon dioxide.

  3. 3

    Any volatile chemical, such as water, ammonia, or carbon dioxide, not necessarily in solid form, when discussing the composition of e.g. a planet as an ice giant vs a gas giant.

  4. 4

    Something having an extreme coldness of manner.

    a heart of ice

  5. 5

    Something, such as awkwardness, that prevents open social interaction.

    break the ice

  6. 6

    The area where a game of ice hockey is played.

  7. 7

    Icing; frosting ("a sweet, often creamy and thick glaze made primarily of sugar").

  8. 8

    UKdatedIce cream.

verb

  1. 1

    To become ice; to freeze.

  2. 2

    To cool with ice, as an injured body part or a beverage.

  3. 3

    To make icy; to freeze.

    The bridge ices before the road.

  4. 4

    To cover with icing (frosting made of sugar and milk or white of egg); to frost; as cakes, tarts, etc.

  5. 5

    To put out a team for a match.

    Milton Keynes have yet to ice a team this season

  6. 6

    To shoot the puck the length of the playing surface, causing a stoppage in play called icing.

    If the Bruins ice the puck, the faceoff will be in their own zone.

  7. 7

    slangTo murder.

  8. 8

    slangTo defeat decisively.

    Despite his vulnerabilities, Clinton managed to ice Dole in his 1996 reelection campaign for President.

noun

as ICE
  1. 1

    Acronym of internal combustion engine.

  2. 2

    Initialism of internal compiler error.

  3. 3

    Initialism of in-circuit emulator/emulation.

  4. 4

    Initialism of in-car entertainment.

  5. 5

    Acronym of ice, compress, elevation (first-aid).

  6. 6

    Initialism of intercontinental exchange.

  7. 7

    Acronym of iridocorneal endothelial syndrome.

phrase

as ICE
  1. 1

    Initialism of in case of emergency, used in mobile phones followed by the number to call if the phone’s owner is injured.

verb

as ICE
  1. 1

    slangTo occupy a reserved electric car parking space (especially one equipped with a charger) with a traditional car equipped with an internal combustion engine.

  2. 2

    slangTo apprehend or deport by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

  3. 3

    slangTo kill (in reference to and hypothetically by Immigration and Customs Enforcement).

adjective

as ICE
  1. 1

    Initialism of isolated, confined, extreme.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Ice in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchglace (water in frozen form), glace sèche, neige (frozen volatile chemical), sorbet (frozen dessert), congeler, geler (to freeze)
GermanEis (water in frozen form), einfrieren, frieren (to freeze)
Portuguesegelo (water in frozen form), gelado (frozen dessert), congelar (to freeze), rinque (ice hockey: area where game is played), gelar (to cool with ice), assassinar (to murder)
Spanishhielo, del agua su duro (water in frozen form), helado (frozen dessert), congelar (to freeze)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does ice come from?

From Middle English hyse, hyys, ice, ijs, is, yce, ys, yys, from Old English īs, from Proto-West Germanic *īs, from Proto-Germanic *īsą (“ice”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eyH- (“ice, frost”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after ice