English homophones
skilful/skillful
"skillful" (#24,592 written frequency) beats "skilful" (#32,595) in this 2-word /ˈskɪlfəl/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /ˈskɪlfəl/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "skillful" leads at #24,592, with "skilful" trailing at #32,595.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "skil" then splits - "skilful" (7 letters) vs "skillful" (8).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across skilful, skillful: fiklsu. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
skilful
7 letters · 2 vowels · shape CCVCCVC
Inventory fiklsu · no private letters vs siblings
skillful
8 letters · 2 vowels · shape CCVCCCVC
Inventory fiklsu · no private letters vs siblings
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "skilful" when you mean: Commonwealth and Irish form standard spelling of skillful
- Write "skillful" when you mean: Possessing skill; skilled.
Known mistypes of these spellings
Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.
Each spelling
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (skilful, skillful). Here's where to go from here.
- "skillful" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #24,592 in English). Full entry
- Among English homophone groups, a cluster of 2 spellings ranks #133 by size (1,007 groups in this vintage). Corpus statistics
- Explore a nearby 2-spelling cluster: sewing · sowing. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "skilful, skillful" has its own headword page with definition, IPA, and misspelling variants. First entry
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.