inkvsioConfusable pair

Which to use

“ink” and “io” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#45,673
“ink” frequency rank
#23,588
“io” frequency rank
69261
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ink io
Definition Encre. Septième lettre de l’alphabet cyrillique, ё.

Where the eye mixes ink and io

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
ink
2 ch
io

Visual trap between ink and io

A purely visual mix-up. ink (\ɪŋk\) and io (\jo\) 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 69261, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ink is recorded at frequency rank #45,673, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɪŋk\. io is at rank #23,588, tagged as anoun, pronounced \jo\.

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 69261, this pair ranks #55,842 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ink vs io

Shared letters: i. Private to "ink": kn. Private to "io": o.

"ink" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "io" · 2 letters · shape VV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ink" and "io" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɪŋk\ versus \jo\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "ink" or "io"?
"io" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,588 in our French list, against #45,673 for "ink". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ink" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "io" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #55,842 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ink" and "io" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ink vs isi". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #55,842 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list