is
/ɪz/
"is" is a 2-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“is” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #8 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #8
- frequency rank, English
- 2
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - third-person singular simple present indicative of be
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 | is |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ɪz/ |
| Letters | 2 |
| Frequency rank | #8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “is” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for is is 2 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɪz/. Corpus data places it at rank #8 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Zero misspellings are on record for is in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "it", "IV", "iz", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésti Proto-Germanic *isti Proto-West Germanic *ist Old English is Middle English is English is From Middle English is, from Old English is, from Proto-West Germanic *ist, from Proto-Germanic *… The correct English form is is, spelled I-S.
Definition
- 1third-person singular simple present indicative of be
- 2Used in phrases with existential there (also here and where) when the semantic subject is plural.
- 3present indicative of be; am, are, is.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésti Proto-Germanic *isti Proto-West Germanic *ist Old English is Middle English is English is From Middle English is, from Old English is, from Proto-West Germanic *ist, from Proto-Germanic *isti (a form of Proto-Germanic *wesaną (“to be”)), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésti (“is”). Cognate with West Frisian is (“is”), Dutch is (“is”), German ist (“is”), Yiddish איז (iz, “is”), Afrikaans is (“am, are, is”) Old Swedish är, er, Old Norse er, es. Further cognates include, among others, Latin est, Ancient Greek ἐστί (estí), Sanskrit अस्ति (asti), Persian است (ast), Russian есть (jestʹ), all with the same meaning.
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 “is”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is I-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɪz/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “it” - see the side-by-side comparison. is vs it
- 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.