Which to use
“grilled” and “grinned” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,037
- “grilled” frequency rank
- #34,090
- “grinned” frequency rank
- 45127
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | grilled | grinned |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of grill | simple past and past participle of grin |
Where the eye mixes grilled and grinned
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. grilled and grinned follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses grilled with grinned
A purely visual mix-up. grilled (/ɡɹɪld/) and grinned (/ɡɹɪnd/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45127, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
grilled is recorded at frequency rank #11,037, classified as averb, pronounced /ɡɹɪld/. grinned is at rank #34,090, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɡɹɪnd/.
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 45127, this pair ranks #224,173 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of grilled vs grinned
Shared letters: degir. Private to "grilled": l. Private to "grinned": n.
"grilled" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC · "grinned" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "grilled" and "grinned" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "grilled" or "grinned" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "grilled" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "grinned" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #224,173 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "grilled" and "grinned" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grieved vs grinned". 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 #224,173 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.