Which to use
“fillet” is a noun and “fills” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #30,047
- “fillet” frequency rank
- #11,032
- “fills” frequency rank
- 41079
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fillet | fills |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A headband; a ribbon or other band used to tie the hair up, or keep a headdress in place, or for decoration. | third-person singular simple present indicative of fill |
Where the eye mixes fillet and fills
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. fillet runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against fills's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: fillet vs fills
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fillet is /ˈfɪl.ɪt/ while fills is /fɪlz/. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41079, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fillet is recorded at frequency rank #30,047, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɪl.ɪt/. fills is at rank #11,032, tagged as averb, pronounced /fɪlz/.
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 41079, this pair ranks #261,674 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fillet vs fills
Shared letters: fil. Private to "fillet": et. Private to "fills": s.
"fillet" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "fills" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fillet" and "fills" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "fillet" vs "fills" - 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 "fillet" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fills" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #261,674 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fillet" and "fills" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fidget vs fillet". 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 #261,674 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.