fillsvsFISWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: fills is a verb, FIS is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fills” is a verb and “FIS” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,032
“fills” frequency rank
#40,245
“FIS” frequency rank
51277
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fills FIS
Definition third-person singular simple present indicative of fill Initialism of flight information service.

Letter map: fills vs FIS

Shared letters muted; letters that set fills and FIS apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
fills
3 ch
FIS

Grammar separator: fills vs FIS

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: fills is averb and FISanoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51277, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fills is recorded at frequency rank #11,032, classified as averb, pronounced /fɪlz/. FIS is at rank #40,245, tagged as anoun.

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 51277, this pair ranks #166,838 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fills vs FIS

Shared letters: fis. Private to "fills": l. Private to "FIS": -.

"fills" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "FIS" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fillsffills · fillss · fils · filsl · flils · iflls

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fills" for "FIS" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fills" is a verb and "FIS" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "fills" or "FIS" show up more?
"fills" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,032 in our English list, against #40,245 for "FIS". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "fills" and "FIS".

  • Full dictionary entry for "fills" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "FIS" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #166,838 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fills" and "FIS" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "FIS vs foh". 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 #166,838 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list