Which to use
“ive” and “ives” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,178
- “ive” frequency rank
- #47,977
- “ives” frequency rank
- 68155
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ive | ives |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Germandrée dont les feuilles, légèrement amères et aromatiques, sont employées en médecine. | Pluriel de ive. |
Same sound, different letters: ive vs ives
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters.
Same sound, different spelling - ive / ives
This is the hard kind. ive and ives are pronounced identically (\iv\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “ive” sits inside “ives”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68155, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ive is recorded at frequency rank #20,178, classified as anoun, pronounced \iv\. ives is at rank #47,977, tagged as anoun, pronounced \iv\.
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 68155, this pair ranks #60,324 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of ive vs ives
Shared letters: eiv. Private to "ive": -. Private to "ives": s.
"ive" · 3 letters · shape VCV · "ives" · 4 letters · shape VCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- ives ← ievs · ivess · ivse
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "ive" and "ives" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "ive" vs "ives" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "ive" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ives" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #60,324 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ive" and "ives" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ime vs ives". 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 #60,324 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.