ilovsironConfusable pair

Which to use

“ilo” and “iron” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#43,641
“ilo” frequency rank
#14,630
“iron” frequency rank
58271
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ilo iron
Definition Herramienta Hierro.

Where the eye mixes ilo and iron

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
ilo
4 ch
iron

Look-alike desk: ilo vs iron

A purely visual mix-up. ilo (/ˈilo/) and iron (/ˈaɪ.ən/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58271, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ilo is recorded at frequency rank #43,641, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈilo/. iron is at rank #14,630, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈaɪ.ən/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 58271, this pair ranks #67,074 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ilo vs iron

Shared letters: io. Private to "ilo": l. Private to "iron": nr.

"ilo" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "iron" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ironiorn · irno · ironn · irron · rion

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ilo" and "iron" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈilo/ versus /ˈaɪ.ən/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "ilo" vs "iron" - which ranks higher?
"iron" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,630 in our Spanish list, against #43,641 for "ilo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "ilo" and "iron" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ilo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "iron" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #67,074 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ilo" and "iron" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ilo vs iza". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #67,074 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list