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refill

/ˈɹiː.fɪl/noun, verb

refill is a noun meaning “An additional helping of food or drink at reduced cost” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled R-E-F-I-L-L and has 2 syllables, and it appears 1.7 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of refill is refills.

What does refill mean?

noun

  1. 1

    An additional helping of food or drink at reduced cost.

    Today it is $2 for a coffee, with free refills throughout the day.

  2. 2

    Refuelling, fuel to refill an empty fuel tank (of a vehicle or machine) or other fuel container.

    Tank's empty. We need to go for a refill.

  3. 3

    A product intended to replace the used contents of a container or the exhausted supply of a device.

    We're cutting back. No new printers or pens, just refills.

  4. 4

    A repeat of a prescription.

  5. 5

    An act or process of refilling.

    capillary refill

verb

  1. 1

    To fill up once again.

    Can you refill my cup please? I've finished my coffee.

  2. 2

    To repeat a prescription.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce refill?

  • /ˈɹiː.fɪl/
  • [ˈɹʷɪi̯.fɪɫ]
  • [-fɪo̯]

As a verb (“To fill up once again”): /ˌɹiːˈfɪl/.

Refill has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-refill_(noun).wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-refill_(verb).wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of refill

  • refills plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • refilling participle, present
  • refilled participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is refill?

Refill appears 1.7 times per million words in written English, the 21,209th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Refill in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
GermanNachschlag (additional helping), Tanken (refuelling), Wiederholungsrezept (repeat prescription), nachfüllen (to fill up again)
Portugueserefill (additional helping), reencher (to fill up again)
Spanishrefill, reservida, rehenchimiento, refil (additional helping), rellenar, reservir (to fill up again)
Frenchreremplir (to fill up again)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does refill come from?

From re- (“again”) + fill (noun).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).