Which to use
“smiling” is an adjective and “spilling” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,628
- “smiling” frequency rank
- #17,964
- “spilling” frequency rank
- 23592
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | smiling | spilling |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | That smiles or has a smile. | The act of dropping or spreading out of a fluid or particles. |
Letter map: smiling vs spilling
Shared letters muted; letters that set smiling and spilling apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.
Role in the sentence - smiling and spilling
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: smiling is anadjective and spillinganoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23592, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
smiling is recorded at frequency rank #5,628, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈsmaɪlɪŋ/. spilling is at rank #17,964, tagged as anoun.
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 23592, this pair ranks #408,173 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of smiling vs spilling
Shared letters: gilns. Private to "smiling": m. Private to "spilling": p.
"smiling" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC · "spilling" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "smiling" and "spilling" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "smiling" or "spilling" show up more?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "smiling" and "spilling".
- Full dictionary entry for "smiling" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "spilling" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #408,173 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "smiling" and "spilling" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "spiking vs spilling". 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 #408,173 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.