IPAvsireTell them apart

Which to use

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

#48,610
“IPA” frequency rank
#23,590
“ire” frequency rank
72200
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature IPA ire
Definition Indice de pollution atmosphérique. Colère.

Where the eye mixes IPA and ire

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

3 ch
IPA
3 ch
ire

Visual trap between IPA and ire

A purely visual mix-up. IPA (\i.pe.a\) and ire (\iʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72200, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

IPA is recorded at frequency rank #48,610, classified as anoun, pronounced \i.pe.a\. ire is at rank #23,590, tagged as anoun, pronounced \iʁ\.

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 72200, this pair ranks #44,844 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of IPA vs ire

Shared letters: i. Private to "IPA": ap. Private to "ire": er.

"IPA" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "ire" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "IPA" and "ire" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\i.pe.a\ versus \iʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "IPA" or "ire" show up more?
"ire" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,590 in our French list, against #48,610 for "IPA". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "IPA" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #44,844 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "IPA" and "ire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "IPA vs isi". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #44,844 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