íris vs its, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#7,993
“íris” frequency rank: #11,659
“its” frequency rank: 19652
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	íris	its
Definition	meteoro luminoso produzido na atmosfera em forma de arco pela decomposição dos raios solares	adjetivo possessivo da terceira pessoa neutra do singular, dele ou dela.

Letter map: íris vs its

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

4 ch

íris

3 ch

its

Grammar separator: íris vs its

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: íris is anoun and itsanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19652, 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/. its is at rank #11,659, tagged as anadj.

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 19652, this pair ranks #51,044 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of íris vs its

Shared letters: is. Private to "íris": rí. Private to "its": t.

"íris" · 4 letters · shape VCVC · "its" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "íris" and "its" be used interchangeably?

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

Which is more common, "íris" or "its"?

"íris" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,993 in our Portuguese list, against #11,659 for "its". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "íris" vs "its" 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 "its" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #51,044 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"íris" and "its" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ino vs its". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #51,044 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.