Which to use
“fails” is a verb and “frills” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,600
- “fails” frequency rank
- #32,813
- “frills” frequency rank
- 37413
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fails | frills |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | third-person singular simple present indicative of fail | plural of frill |
Where the eye mixes fails and frills
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. fails runs 5 letters (CVVCC) against frills's 6 (CCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between fails and frills
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fails is /feɪlz/ while frills is /fɹɪlz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37413, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fails is recorded at frequency rank #4,600, classified as averb, pronounced /feɪlz/. frills is at rank #32,813, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fɹɪlz/.
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 37413, this pair ranks #294,789 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fails vs frills
Shared letters: fils. Private to "fails": a. Private to "frills": r.
"fails" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "frills" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fails" for "frills" ever safe?
Which is more common, "fails" or "frills"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "fails" and "frills" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fails" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "frills" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #294,789 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fails" and "frills" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fells vs frills". 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 #294,789 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.