írisvsironConfusable pair

Which to use

“íris” and “iron” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#7,993
“íris” frequency rank
#13,963
“iron” frequency rank
21956
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature íris iron
Definition meteoro luminoso produzido na atmosfera em forma de arco pela decomposição dos raios solares ferro, elemento químico de número atômico 26 e símbolo Fe

Where the eye mixes íris and iron

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

4 ch
íris
4 ch
iron

Look-alike desk: íris vs iron

A purely visual mix-up. íris (/ˈi.ɾiʃ/) and iron (/ˈaɪərn/, ouvir^(fonte ?)) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21956, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

íris is recorded at frequency rank #7,993, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈi.ɾiʃ/. iron is at rank #13,963, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈaɪərn/, ouvir^(fonte ?).

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 21956, this pair ranks #48,190 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of íris vs iron

Shared letters: ir. Private to "íris": . Private to "iron": no.

"íris" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "iron" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ironiorn · irno · ironn · irron · rion

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "íris" and "iron" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈi.ɾiʃ/ versus /ˈaɪərn/, ouvir^(fonte ?)) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "íris" vs "iron" - which ranks higher?
"íris" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,993 in our Portuguese list, against #13,963 for "iron". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "íris" and "iron" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "íris" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "iron" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #48,190 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "íris" and "iron" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ino vs iron". 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 #48,190 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list