Which to use
“ITER” is a name and “its” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #46,832
- “ITER” frequency rank
- #15,916
- “its” frequency rank
- 62748
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ITER | its |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Projet scientifique international de recherche sur un réacteur à fusion nucléaire de type tokamak. | Son, sa (lorsque c’est une chose qui possède). |
Where the eye mixes ITER and its
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between ITER and its
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ITER is \i.tɛʁ\ while its is \ɪts\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62748, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ITER is recorded at frequency rank #46,832, classified as aname, pronounced \i.tɛʁ\. its is at rank #15,916, tagged as adet, pronounced \ɪts\.
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 62748, this pair ranks #85,501 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of ITER vs its
Shared letters: it. Private to "ITER": er. Private to "its": s.
"ITER" · 4 letters · shape VCVC · "its" · 3 letters · shape VCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- ITER ← ietr · iterr · itre · itter
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ITER" for "its" ever safe?
Which is more common, "ITER" or "its"?
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 "ITER" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "its" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #85,501 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ITER" and "its" 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 #85,501 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.