ice

/aɪs/

//aɪs// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"ice" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“ice” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #1,081) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#1,081
frequency rank, English
2,140
“I” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Water in frozen (solid) form.

Corpus desk

Index EN-ice · ice · English

ice · rank #1,081 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #1,081
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,140
  • PHOTO-FINISH husband

Nearest frequency peer: husband (-1 rank slots)

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.

Frequency neighbours of confusable “ice”

Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below

corpus weight

What this shows Bars place “ice” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

ice vs in
33% similar
ice vs is
33% similar
ice vs it
33% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for ice
PropertyValue
Headwordice
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/aɪs/
Letters3
Frequency rank#1,081
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Corpus rank beside confusables of “ice”

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right).icelands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Same rarity band neighbours include “husband” (#1,080), “individual” (#1,082), “hi” (#1,079). Among 2,140 “I” headwords, “ice” is #1,081. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for ice is neighbouring look-alikes ("in", "is", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /aɪs/. Frequency #1,081 among 2,140 “I” headwords. 15 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

ice has no tracked misspelling variants, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "in", "is", "it", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Etymologically, the entry records: 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”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian Iis, is (“ice”), Saterland … The correct English form is ice, spelled I-C-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Water in frozen (solid) form.
  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.
  5. 5
    Something, such as awkwardness, that prevents open social interaction.
  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
    A frozen dessert made of fruit juice, water and sugar.
  9. 9
    An ice cream.
  10. 10
    An individual piece of ice.
  11. 11
    Elephant or rhinoceros ivory that has been poached and sold on the black market.
  12. 12
    An artifact that has been smuggled, especially one that is either clear or shiny.
  13. 13
    Money paid as a bribe.
  14. 14
    The crystal form of amphetamine-based drugs, including methamphetamine.
  15. 15
    One or more diamonds.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. If thou doſt marry, Ile giue thee / This plague to thy dowry: / Be thou as chaſte as yce, as pure as ſnowe, / Thou ſhalt not ſcape calumny, to a Nunnery goe.
  2. 1882, Popular Science Monthly (volume 20), "The Freezing of a Salt Lake" It has always been difficult to explain how ice is formed on the surface of oceans while the temperature of maximum density is lower than that of cogelation, and the observations on this lake were instituted in the hope that they might throw light upon the subject.

Etymology

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”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian Iis, is (“ice”), Saterland Frisian Ies (“ice”), West Frisian iis (“ice”), Alemannic German Iis, isch, éisch (“ice”), Bavarian, Cimbrian, and Mòcheno ais (“ice”), Dutch ijs (“ice”), German Eis (“ice”), German Low German Ies (“ice”), Luxembourgish Äis (“ice”), Vilamovian ajs (“ice”), Yiddish אײַז (ayz, “ice”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish is (“ice”), Elfdalian ais (“ice”), Faroese ísur (“ice”), Icelandic ís (“ice”); also Cornish yey (“ice”), yeyn (“cold”), Irish oighear (“ice”), Scottish Gaelic deigh, eigh, eighre (“ice”), Welsh iâ (“ice”), Lithuanian ýnis (“hoar frost”), Bulgarian and Russian и́ней (ínej, “hoar frost”), Czech jíní (“frost”), Macedonian and Serbo-Croatian и́ње (“hoar frost”), Ukrainian і́ній (ínij, “hoar frost, rime”), Ossetian их (ix, “ice”), Armenian եղյամ (eġyam, “frost, hoar frost, rime”), Persian یخ (yax, “ice”), Hittite 𒂊𒃷 (“ice”). Superseded non-native Middle English glace (“ice”), borrowed from Old French glace (“ice”).

This word in other languages

hielo(Español)glace(Français)Eis(Deutsch)gelo(Português)

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

How do you spell "ice"?
"ice" is spelled I-C-E. The IPA pronunciation is /aɪs/.
What does "ice" mean?
As a noun, "ice" means: Water in frozen (solid) form.
What words are commonly confused with "ice"?
"ice" is commonly confused with "in", "is", "it". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "ice"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "ice" is /aɪs/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "ice"?
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”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian Iis, is (“ice”), ... 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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "ice", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

ass#1,065kid#1,107gas#1,051via#1,034

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list