Which to use
“shilling” and “shitting” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #23,393
- “shilling” frequency rank
- #17,242
- “shitting” frequency rank
- 40635
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shilling | shitting |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A coin formerly used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Malta, Australia, New Zealand and many other Commonwealth countries worth twelve old pence, or one twentieth of a pound sterling. | The act of defecating. |
Where the eye mixes shilling and shitting
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. shilling and shitting follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses shilling with shitting
A purely visual mix-up. shilling (/ˈʃɪlɪŋ/) and shitting (/ˈʃɪtɪŋ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40635, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
shilling is recorded at frequency rank #23,393, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈʃɪlɪŋ/. shitting is at rank #17,242, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈʃɪtɪŋ/.
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 40635, this pair ranks #265,758 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of shilling vs shitting
Shared letters: ghins. Private to "shilling": l. Private to "shitting": t.
"shilling" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC · "shitting" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "shilling" and "shitting" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "shilling" or "shitting"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "shilling" and "shitting" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "shilling" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "shitting" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #265,758 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shilling" and "shitting" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shitting vs suiting". 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 #265,758 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.