shill vs shim, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#42,892
“shill” frequency rank: #40,020
“shim” frequency rank: 82912
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	shill	shim
Definition	A person paid to endorse a product while pretending to be impartial.	A wedge.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set shill and shim apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

shill

4 ch

shim

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. shill (/ʃɪl/) and shim (/ʃɪm/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82912, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

shill is recorded at frequency rank #42,892, classified as anoun, pronounced /ʃɪl/. shim is at rank #40,020, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ʃɪm/.

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 82912, this pair ranks #14,837 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of shill vs shim

Shared letters: his. Private to "shill": l. Private to "shim": m.

"shill" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "shim" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

shill ← hsill · shhill · shil · shlil · sihll · sshill
shim ← hsim · shhim · shimm · shmi · sihm · sshim

Frequency comparison

shill#42,892

shim#40,020

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "shill" and "shim" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (/ʃɪl/ versus /ʃɪm/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "shill" or "shim"?

"shim" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,020 in our English list, against #42,892 for "shill". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering shill vs shim

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 “shill” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable