ballsvsbillsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“balls” and “bills” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#24,255
“balls” frequency rank
#48,785
“bills” frequency rank
73040
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature balls bills
Definition Plural des Substantivs ball Plural des Substantivs bill

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set balls and bills apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
balls
5 ch
bills

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

balls and bills are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - a in “balls” becomes i in “bills”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73040, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

balls is recorded at frequency rank #24,255, classified as anoun, pronounced [bɔːlz]. bills is at rank #48,785, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 73040, this pair ranks #371,415 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of balls vs bills

Shared letters: bls. Private to "balls": a. Private to "bills": i.

"balls" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "bills" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ballsablls · ballss · bals · balsl · bballs · blals
  • billsbbills · billss · bils · bilsl · blils · iblls

Frequency comparison

balls#24,255
bills#48,785

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "balls" and "bills" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by a single letter - a in “balls” becomes i in “bills”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "balls" or "bills"?
"balls" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,255 in our German list, against #48,785 for "bills". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering balls vs bills

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “balls” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list