Grill or grille?
grill is a noun meaning “A grating; a grid of wire or a sheet of material with a pattern of holes or…”; grille is a noun meaning “Alternative form of grill (only in the senses of "grating over opening"…”. They sound the same (/ɡɹɪl/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) grill is about 5.5 times as common as grille.
What is the difference between grill and grille?
| grill | grille | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb, adjective | noun |
| Meaning | A grating; a grid of wire or a sheet of material with a pattern of holes or slots, usually used to protect something while allowing the passage of air and… The criss-cross pieces that separate panes of glass in a window To cook (food) on a grill; to barbecue | A rectangular stencil allowing words to be written, then read, through its apertures, with the text further disguised by filling the remaining space with… |
| Example | I put some peppers and mushrooms on the grill to go with dinner | none recorded |
| Forms | grills, grillz grills | grilles |
| Pronunciation | /ɡɹɪl/ | /ɡɹɪl/ |
| In writing | 6.9 times per million words | 1.3 times per million words |
Sources: grill and grille 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 grill and grille
grill
- 1
A grating; a grid of wire or a sheet of material with a pattern of holes or slots, usually used to protect something while allowing the passage of air and liquids. Typical uses: to allow air through…
- 2
To cook (food) on a grill; to barbecue
Why don't we get together Saturday and grill some burgers?
- 3
The criss-cross pieces that separate panes of glass in a window
- 4
AustraliaUKTo cook food under the element of a stove or only under the top element of an oven – (US) broil, (cooking) salamander
- 5
On a vehicle, a slotted cover as above, to protect and hide the radiator, while admitting air to cool it
- 6
colloquialTo interrogate; to question aggressively or harshly
The police grilled him about his movements at the time of the crime
- 7
UKA cooking device comprising a source of radiative heat and a means of holding food under it; a broiler in US English
- 8
informalTo feel very hot; to swelter
grille
- 1
Alternative form of grill (only in the senses of "grating over opening", "grating on the front of a vehicle", and "window divider")
- 2
A rectangular stencil allowing words to be written, then read, through its apertures, with the text further disguised by filling the remaining space with irrelevant words
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, grill or grille?
grill appears 6.9 times per million words; grille 1.3 times per million words.
grill 6.9 times per million wordsgrille 1.3 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 grill vs grille?
“grill vs grille” is searched about 880 times a month on Google and 70 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“grille vs grill”, “grill or grille”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.