íris vs is, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“íris” is a noun and “is” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,993
“íris” frequency rank: #1,709
“is” frequency rank: 9702
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	íris	is
Definition	meteoro luminoso produzido na atmosfera em forma de arco pela decomposição dos raios solares	contração de agus; e

Letter map: íris vs is

Shared letters muted; letters that set íris and is apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch

íris

2 ch

Part-of-speech tell for íris / is

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: íris is anoun and isaverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “is” sits inside “íris”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9702, 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/. is is at rank #1,709, tagged as averb.

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 9702, this pair ranks #63,644 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of íris vs is

Shared letters: is. Private to "íris": rí. Private to "is": -.

"íris" · 4 letters · shape VCVC · "is" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "íris" for "is" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "íris" is a noun and "is" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "íris" or "is"?

"is" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,709 in our Portuguese list, against #7,993 for "íris". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "íris" vs "is" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "íris" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "is" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #63,644 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"íris" and "is" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ioiô vs íris". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #63,644 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.