Which to use
“dilly” is an adjective and “drill” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #44,739
- “dilly” frequency rank
- #6,132
- “drill” frequency rank
- 50871
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dilly | drill |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Redolent of dill (the herb). | To create (a hole) by removing material with a drill (tool). |
Where the eye mixes dilly and drill
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: dilly vs drill
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dilly is /ˈdɪli/ while drill is /dɹɪl/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50871, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dilly is recorded at frequency rank #44,739, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈdɪli/. drill is at rank #6,132, tagged as averb, pronounced /dɹɪl/.
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 50871, this pair ranks #170,408 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dilly vs drill
Shared letters: dil. Private to "dilly": y. Private to "drill": r.
"dilly" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "drill" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "dilly" and "drill" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "dilly" or "drill" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "dilly" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "drill" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #170,408 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dilly" and "drill" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dilly vs ditty". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #170,408 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.