Which to use
“ill” is an adjective and “íon” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #44,899
- “ill” frequency rank
- #44,174
- “íon” frequency rank
- 89073
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ill | íon |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | doente | espécie química eletricamente carregada, geralmente um átomo ou molécula que perdeu ou ganhou elétrons |
Letter map: ill vs íon
Shared letters muted; letters that set ill and íon apart highlighted. No shared letter run.
Grammar separator: ill vs íon
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ill is anadjective and íonanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 89073, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ill is recorded at frequency rank #44,899, classified as anadj, pronounced /ɪl/. íon is at rank #44,174, tagged as anoun.
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 89073, this pair ranks #356 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of ill vs íon
Shared letters: none. Private to "ill": il. Private to "íon": noí.
"ill" · 3 letters · shape VCC · "íon" · 3 letters · shape VVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ill" for "íon" ever safe?
Frequency check: "ill" vs "íon" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pair "ill" vs "íon" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "ill" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "íon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #356 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ill" and "íon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ill vs ino". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #356 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.