grillevsgrillsTell them apart

Which to use

“grille” and “grills” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#25,396
“grille” frequency rank
#32,420
“grills” frequency rank
57816
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature grille grills
Definition Alternative form of grill (only in the senses of "grating over opening", "grating on the front of a vehicle", and "window divider") plural of grill

Where the eye mixes grille and grills

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. grille (CCVCCV) and grills (CCVCCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
grille
6 ch
grills

Look-alike desk: grille vs grills

A purely visual mix-up. grille (/ɡɹɪl/) and grills (/ɡɹɪlz/) 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 a single letter - e in “grille” becomes s in “grills”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57816, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

grille is recorded at frequency rank #25,396, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɡɹɪl/. grills is at rank #32,420, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɡɹɪlz/.

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 57816, this pair ranks #116,741 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of grille vs grills

Shared letters: gilr. Private to "grille": e. Private to "grills": s.

"grille" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "grills" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • grille ← ggrille · girlle · grile · grilel · grlile · grrille · rgille
  • grills ← ggrills · grillss · grilsl · grlils · grrills · rgills

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "grille" and "grills" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ɡɹɪl/ versus /ɡɹɪlz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "grille" or "grills"?
"grille" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,396 in our English list, against #32,420 for "grills". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "grille" and "grills" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "grille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "grills" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #116,741 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "grille" and "grills" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grills vs grimly". 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 #116,741 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