Which to use
“ides” and “isles” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #42,389
- “ides” frequency rank
- #36,912
- “isles” frequency rank
- 79301
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ides | isles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Le quinzième jour des mois de mars, de mai, de juillet et d’octobre dans le calendrier des anciens Romains, et le treizième des autres mois. | Pluriel de isle. |
Where the eye mixes ides and isles
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: ides vs isles
A purely visual mix-up. ides (\id\) and isles (\il\) 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 79301, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ides is recorded at frequency rank #42,389, classified as anoun, pronounced \id\. isles is at rank #36,912, tagged as anoun, pronounced \il\.
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 79301, this pair ranks #23,631 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of ides vs isles
Shared letters: eis. Private to "ides": d. Private to "isles": l.
"ides" · 4 letters · shape VCVC · "isles" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "ides" and "isles" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "ides" or "isles" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "ides" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "isles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #23,631 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ides" and "isles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ides vs ime". 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 #23,631 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.