Which to use
“kill” is a verb and “kills” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #852
- “kill” frequency rank
- #4,028
- “kills” frequency rank
- 4880
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | kill | kills |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To put to death; to extinguish the life of. | plural of kill |
Where the eye mixes kill and kills
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between kill and kills
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: kill is /kɪl/ while kills is /kɪlz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “kill” sits inside “kills”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4880, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
kill is recorded at frequency rank #852, classified as averb, pronounced /kɪl/. kills is at rank #4,028, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɪlz/.
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 4880, this pair ranks #517,353 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of kill vs kills
Shared letters: ikl. Private to "kill": -. Private to "kills": s.
"kill" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "kills" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "kill" and "kills" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "kill" vs "kills" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "kill" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "kills" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #517,353 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "kill" and "kills" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kills vs krill". 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 #517,353 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.