Fulfil or fulfill?
In American English write fulfill; in British and Commonwealth English, fulfil. fulfil is a verb meaning “UK standard spelling of fulfill”; fulfill is a verb meaning “To satisfy, carry out, bring to completion (an obligation, a requirement, etc.)”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) fulfill is about 2.0 times as common as fulfil.
What is the difference between fulfil and fulfill?
| fulfil | fulfill | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb | verb |
| Meaning | UK standard spelling of fulfill | USTo satisfy, carry out, bring to completion (an obligation, a requirement, etc.) USTo emotionally or artistically satisfy; to develop one's gifts to the fullest |
| Example | none recorded | You made a promise, son, and now you must fulfill it |
| Forms | fulfils, fulfilling, fulfilled | fulfills, fulfilling, fulfilled |
| Pronunciation | /fʊlˈfɪl/ /fəˈfɪl/ | /fʊlˈfɪl/ /fəˈfɪl/ /fɔɹˈfɪl/ |
| Region | no label | US |
| In writing | 3.5 times per million words | 7.2 times per million words |
Sources: fulfil and fulfill in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of fulfil and fulfill
fulfil
- 1
UK standard spelling of fulfill
fulfill
- 1
USTo satisfy, carry out, bring to completion (an obligation, a requirement, etc.)
You made a promise, son, and now you must fulfill it
- 2
USTo emotionally or artistically satisfy; to develop one's gifts to the fullest
This is the most fulfilling work I've ever done
- 3
USTo obey, follow, comply with (a rule, requirement etc.)
Unfortunately, you don't fulfill the criteria for extra grants at the present time
- 4
USTo package, distribute, or ship goods
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, fulfil or fulfill?
fulfil appears 3.5 times per million words; fulfill 7.2 times per million words.
fulfil 3.5 times per million wordsfulfill 7.2 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search fulfil vs fulfill?
“fulfil vs fulfill” is searched about 1,600 times a month on Google and 60 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“fulfill vs fulfil”, “fulfil or fulfill”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.