Which to use
“skilled” and “stilted” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,841
- “skilled” frequency rank
- #49,652
- “stilted” frequency rank
- 55493
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | skilled | stilted |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having or showing skill; skillful. | Making use of or possessing a stilt or stilts, or things resembling stilts; raised on stilts. |
Where the eye mixes skilled and stilted
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. skilled and stilted follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses skilled with stilted
A purely visual mix-up. skilled (/skɪld/) and stilted (/ˈstɪltɪd/) 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 55493, 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/. stilted is at rank #49,652, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈstɪltɪd/.
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 55493, this pair ranks #133,217 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of skilled vs stilted
Shared letters: deils. Private to "skilled": k. Private to "stilted": t.
"skilled" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC · "stilted" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "skilled" and "stilted" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "skilled" or "stilted" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "skilled" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "stilted" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #133,217 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "skilled" and "stilted" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "skirted 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 #133,217 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.