IPA is a system of special signs used to show the sounds people make in speech, not how a word is spelled. Teachers and dictionaries call this the International Phonetic Alphabet. Next to a word you might see marks that tell you how to say thought, so the th in think and the th in this are not treated as the same sound. Learners meet this in class and in the pronunciation part of a dictionary. You say the three letters, I-P-A. Though actually, the same three letters also name a beer in bars (India Pale Ale) and, in some labs, a cleaning alcohol. Those are different lives of the letters. If you are looking the word up beside a pronunciation, you want the sound signs.