feelvsfillWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“feel” and “fill” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#201
“feel” frequency rank
#2,297
“fill” frequency rank
2498
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature feel fill
Definition To use or experience the sense of touch. To make full

Where the eye mixes feel and fill

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
feel
4 ch
fill

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. feel (/fiːl/) and fill (/fɪl/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2498, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

feel is recorded at frequency rank #201, classified as averb, pronounced /fiːl/. fill is at rank #2,297, tagged as averb, pronounced /fɪl/.

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 2498, this pair ranks #524,821 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of feel vs fill

Shared letters: fl. Private to "feel": e. Private to "fill": i.

"feel" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "fill" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • feelefel · feell · fel · fele · ffeel
  • fillffill · flil · ifll

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "feel" and "fill" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/fiːl/ versus /fɪl/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "feel" or "fill"?
"feel" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #201 in our English list, against #2,297 for "fill". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list