itemvsITERTell them apart

Quick tell: item is a adverb, ITER is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“item” is an adverb and “ITER” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#19,048
“item” frequency rank
#46,832
“ITER” frequency rank
65880
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature item ITER
Definition De même, également. Projet scientifique international de recherche sur un réacteur à fusion nucléaire de type tokamak.

Where the eye mixes item and ITER

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
item
4 ch
ITER

Look-alike desk: item vs ITER

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: item is \i.tɛm\ while ITER is \i.tɛʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - m in “item” becomes r in “ITER”, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65880, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

item is recorded at frequency rank #19,048, classified as anadv, pronounced \i.tɛm\. ITER is at rank #46,832, tagged as aname, pronounced \i.tɛʁ\.

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 65880, this pair ranks #70,368 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of item vs ITER

Shared letters: eit. Private to "item": m. Private to "ITER": r.

"item" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "ITER" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • itemietm · itemm · ittem
  • ITERietr · iterr · itre · itter

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "item" and "ITER" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "item" is an adverb and "ITER" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "item" or "ITER" show up more?
"item" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,048 in our French list, against #46,832 for "ITER". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "item" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ITER" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #70,368 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "item" and "ITER" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ime vs ITER". 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 #70,368 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