Which to use
“skill” and “spills” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,526
- “skill” frequency rank
- #18,436
- “spills” frequency rank
- 21962
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | skill | spills |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A capacity to do something well; a technique, an ability, usually acquired or learned, as opposed to abilities that are regarded as innate. | plural of spill |
Where the eye mixes skill and spills
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between skill and spills
A purely visual mix-up. skill (/skɪl/) and spills (/spɪlz/) 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 21962, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
skill is recorded at frequency rank #3,526, classified as anoun, pronounced /skɪl/. spills is at rank #18,436, tagged as anoun, pronounced /spɪlz/.
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 21962, this pair ranks #420,080 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of skill vs spills
Shared letters: ils. Private to "skill": k. Private to "spills": p.
"skill" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "spills" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "skill" and "spills" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "skill" vs "spills" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "skill" and "spills" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "skill" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "spills" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #420,080 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "skill" and "spills" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "spiel vs spills". 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 #420,080 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.