Nil or nill?
nil is a noun meaning “Nothing; zero”; nill is a noun meaning “Shining sparks thrown off from melted brass”. They sound the same (/nɪl/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) nil is about 20 times as common as nill.
What is the difference between nil and nill?
| nil | nill | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, determiner, prefix | verb, noun |
| Meaning | Nothing; zero A score of zero No, not any | Shining sparks thrown off from melted brass Scales of hot iron from the forge |
| Example | The football match ended in a nil-nil draw | none recorded |
| Forms | nils | none |
| Pronunciation | /nɪl/ | /nɪl/ |
| In writing | 2.1 times per million words | about once in every 9 million words |
Sources: nil and nill 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 nil and nill
nil
- 1
Nothing; zero
- 2
No, not any
- 3
Initialism of nanoimprint lithography
- 4
Zero
- 5
A score of zero
The football match ended in a nil-nil draw
- 6
CanadaUSInitialism of name, image, and likeness
- 7
Used for the digit zero to form systematic element names of elements whose existence has been predicted, and which have not yet been given a trivial name
un- (“1”) + bi- (“2”) + nil- (“0”) + -ium (element suffix) → unbinilium (“element 120”)
nill
- 1
Shining sparks thrown off from melted brass
- 2
Scales of hot iron from the forge
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, nil or nill?
nil appears 2.1 times per million words; nill about once in every 9 million words.
nil 2.1 times per million wordsnill about once in every 9 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).