Which to use
“fil” and “filly” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,085
- “fil” frequency rank
- #23,832
- “filly” frequency rank
- 42917
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fil | filly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A Nordic dairy product, similar to yogurt, but using different bacteria which give a different taste and texture. | A young female horse. |
Where the eye mixes fil and filly
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. fil runs 3 letters (CVC) against filly's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: fil vs filly
A purely visual mix-up. fil (/fiːl/) and filly (/ˈfɪli/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “fil” sits inside “filly”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42917, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fil is recorded at frequency rank #19,085, classified as anoun, pronounced /fiːl/. filly is at rank #23,832, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɪli/.
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 42917, this pair ranks #244,949 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fil vs filly
Shared letters: fil. Private to "fil": -. Private to "filly": y.
"fil" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "filly" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- filly ← ffilly · fillyy · fily · filyl · flily · iflly
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fil" for "filly" ever safe?
Frequency check: "fil" vs "filly" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "fil" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "filly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #244,949 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fil" and "filly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "feely vs filly". 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 #244,949 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.