Skip to main content
PlainSpell

icon

/ˈaɪ.kɑn/noun

icon is spelled I-C-O-N: 4 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 14 times per million words in written English, the 5,496th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, icon means “An image, symbol, picture, portrait, or other representation, usually as an object of religious devotion” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of icon is icons.

How many letters and syllables are in icon?

Letters4: I-C-O-N
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing14 times per million words; the 5,496th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Rhymes with
Same letters

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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is icon?

Icon appears 14 times per million words in written English, the 5,496th 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 icon?

  • UK /ˈaɪ.kɒn/
  • UK /ˈaɪ.kən/
  • US /ˈaɪ.kɑn/

Icon has 2 syllables (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-icon.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with icon

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

icon vs ikon0 B

Also written: ikon.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with icon?

One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as icon from its last stressed vowel (/aɪkɑn/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: coin.

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 icon

  • icons plural
  • eikon
  • ikon

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

What does icon mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    An image, symbol, picture, portrait, or other representation, usually as an object of religious devotion.

  2. 2

    A type of religious painting portraying a saint or scene from Scripture, often done on wooden panels.

  3. 3

    A person or thing that is the best example of a certain profession or some doing.

    That man is an icon in the business; he personifies loyalty and good business sense.

  4. 4

    A small picture that represents something.

    Click the loudspeaker icon to configure audio settings.

  5. 5

    informalAn image used to represent a user; an avatar or profile picture.

    Is it okay if I use your drawing as my icon?

  6. 6

    A word, character, or sign whose form reflects and is determined by the referent; onomatopoeic words are necessarily all icons.

    .

noun

as ICON
  1. 1

    Acronym of index currency option note, a type of financial instrument.

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

Icon in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchicône (image)
GermanBild (image), Ikone (religious painting), Symbol (exemplar), Icon (small picture, computer icon)
Portugueseícone (image), ídolo (religious painting)
Spanishicono, ícono (image)

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 icon come from?

From Latin īcōn, from Ancient Greek εἰκών (eikṓn, “likeness, image, portrait”). Eastern Orthodox Church sense is attested from 1833. Computing sense first recorded in 1982.

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

What to look up after icon