its
/ɪts/
"its" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“its” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #75 in English word frequency and used as a determiner.
- #75
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Belonging to it.
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 | its |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Determiner |
| IPA | /ɪts/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #75 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “its” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for its is 3 letters long, classified as a determiner, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɪts/. Corpus data places it at rank #75 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Belonging to it.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for its in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "IV", "iz", "ivy", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Equivalent to it + -s (possessive marker). From the earlier form it's (it + -'s), which is now considered nonstandard. Began to displace his as the possessive of the neuter pronoun in the Middle English period; had fully displaced it by the 1700s. The correct English form is its, spelled I-T-S.
Definition
- 1Belonging to it.
Etymology
Equivalent to it + -s (possessive marker). From the earlier form it's (it + -'s), which is now considered nonstandard. Began to displace his as the possessive of the neuter pronoun in the Middle English period; had fully displaced it by the 1700s.
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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Using “its”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is I-T-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɪts/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “IV” - see the side-by-side comparison. its vs IV
- 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.