skilledvsstillerWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#5,841
“skilled” frequency rank
#42,921
“stiller” frequency rank
48762
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature skilled stiller
Definition Having or showing skill; skillful. comparative form of still: more still

Letter map: skilled vs stiller

Shared letters muted; letters that set skilled and stiller apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. skilled and stiller follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
skilled
7 ch
stiller

Pair insight - skilled / stiller

skilled and stiller are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48762, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

skilled is recorded at frequency rank #5,841, classified as anadj, pronounced /skɪld/. stiller is at rank #42,921, tagged as anadj.

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 48762, this pair ranks #189,988 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of skilled vs stiller

Shared letters: eils. Private to "skilled": dk. Private to "stiller": rt.

"skilled" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "stiller" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • skilled ← ksilled · siklled · skiled · skileld · skillde · skilledd · skkilled · skliled
  • stiller ← sitller · sstiller · stilelr · stiler · stillerr · stillre · stliler · sttiller

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "skilled" and "stiller" be used interchangeably?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "skilled" vs "stiller" - which ranks higher?
"skilled" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,841 in our English list, against #42,921 for "stiller". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "skilled" and "stiller".

  • Full dictionary entry for "skilled" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stiller" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #189,988 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "skilled" and "stiller" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stiller vs stilted". 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 #189,988 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list