ion
/ˈaɪən/
"ion" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ion” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #5,604) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #5,604
- frequency rank, English
- 2,140
- “I” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An atom or group of atoms bearing an electrical charge, such as the sodium and chlorine atoms in a salt solution.
Corpus desk
Index EN-ion · ion · English
ion · rank #5,604 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #5,604
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,140
- PHOTO-FINISH inform
Nearest frequency peer: inform (-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 “ion”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- hates
hates
94,400 corpus weight
- incidents
incidents
94,399 corpus weight
- inform
inform
94,398 corpus weight
- ion
ion
94,397 corpus weight
- Jeremy
Jeremy
94,396 corpus weight
- lesbian
lesbian
94,395 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “ion” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.
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 | ion |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈaɪən/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #5,604 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “ion”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for ion is neighbouring look-alikes ("is", "it", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /ˈaɪən/. Frequency #5,604 among 2,140 “I” headwords. Gloss: "An atom or group of atoms bearing an electrical charge, such as the sodium and chlorine atoms in a salt solution.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for ion, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "is", "it", "IV", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From the ending of anion and cation, which in turn is from Ancient Greek ἰόν (ión, “going”), neuter present participle of εἶμι (eîmi, “I go”). Coined by English polymath William Whewell in 1834 for Michael Faraday, who introduced it later that year. The correct English form is ion, spelled I-O-N.
Definition
- 1An atom or group of atoms bearing an electrical charge, such as the sodium and chlorine atoms in a salt solution.
Etymology
From the ending of anion and cation, which in turn is from Ancient Greek ἰόν (ión, “going”), neuter present participle of εἶμι (eîmi, “I go”). Coined by English polymath William Whewell in 1834 for Michael Faraday, who introduced it later that year.
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); 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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "ion", not the corpus desk frequency band.