Which to use
“spiky” and “spilt” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #39,582
- “spiky” frequency rank
- #32,598
- “spilt” frequency rank
- 72180
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | spiky | spilt |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Of a plant: producing spikes (“ears (as of corn); inflorescences in which sessile flowers are arranged on unbranched elongated axes”). | That has been spilled. |
Where the eye mixes spiky and spilt
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. spiky (CCVCV) and spilt (CCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses spiky with spilt
A purely visual mix-up. spiky (/ˈspaɪki/) and spilt (/spɪlt/) 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 72180, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
spiky is recorded at frequency rank #39,582, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈspaɪki/. spilt is at rank #32,598, tagged as anadj, pronounced /spɪlt/.
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 72180, this pair ranks #43,938 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of spiky vs spilt
Shared letters: ips. Private to "spiky": ky. Private to "spilt": lt.
"spiky" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "spilt" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "spiky" and "spilt" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "spiky" or "spilt" 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 "spiky" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "spilt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #43,938 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "spiky" and "spilt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "spiky vs sucky". 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 #43,938 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.