silvsstillWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: sil is a noun, still is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sil” is a noun and “still” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,461
“sil” frequency rank
#127
“still” frequency rank
29588
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sil still
Definition A yellowish pigment used by painters in ancient times. Not moving; calm.

Letter map: sil vs still

Shared letters muted; letters that set sil and still apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

3 ch
sil
5 ch
still

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sil is anoun and stillanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29588, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sil is recorded at frequency rank #29,461, classified as anoun. still is at rank #127, tagged as anadj, pronounced /stɪl/.

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 29588, this pair ranks #361,713 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sil vs still

Shared letters: ils. Private to "sil": -. Private to "still": t.

"sil" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "still" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • stillsitll · sstill · stil · stlil · sttill · tsill

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sil" and "still" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sil" is a noun and "still" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sil" or "still"?
"still" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #127 in our English list, against #29,461 for "sil". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list