guerillavsguerrillaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#32,833
“guerilla” frequency rank
#17,623
“guerrilla” frequency rank
50456
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature guerilla guerrilla
Definition Obsolete spelling of guerrilla, now a misspelling. A soldier in a small independent group, fighting against the government or regular forces by surprise raids.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set guerilla and guerrilla apart are highlighted. They share 8 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

8 ch
guerilla
9 ch
guerrilla

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

guerilla and guerrilla are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50456, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

guerilla is recorded at frequency rank #32,833, classified as anoun. guerrilla is at rank #17,623, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɡəˈɹɪlə/.

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 50456, this pair ranks #174,100 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of guerilla vs guerrilla

Shared letters: aegilru. Private to "guerilla": -. Private to "guerrilla": -.

"guerilla" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCCV  ·  "guerrilla" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • guerillageurilla · gguerilla · gueirlla · guerila · guerilal · guerlila · gureilla · ugerilla
  • guerrillageurrilla · gguerrilla · guerirlla · guerrila · guerrilal · guerrlila · gurerilla · ugerrilla

Frequency comparison

guerilla#32,833
guerrilla#17,623

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "guerilla" and "guerrilla" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "guerilla" or "guerrilla"?
"guerrilla" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,623 in our English list, against #32,833 for "guerilla". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering guerilla vs guerrilla

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “guerilla” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list