Which to use
“stifled” and “stilted” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,194
- “stifled” frequency rank
- #49,652
- “stilted” frequency rank
- 81846
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | stifled | stilted |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | That has been interrupted, suppressed etc | Making use of or possessing a stilt or stilts, or things resembling stilts; raised on stilts. |
Letter map: stifled vs stilted
Shared letters muted; letters that set stifled and stilted apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. stifled and stilted follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Pair insight - stifled / stilted
stifled and stilted 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 81846, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
stifled is recorded at frequency rank #32,194, classified as anadj. 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 81846, this pair ranks #16,873 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of stifled vs stilted
Shared letters: deilst. Private to "stifled": f. Private to "stilted": -.
"stifled" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC · "stilted" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "stifled" for "stilted" ever safe?
Frequency check: "stifled" vs "stilted" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
You've compared "stifled" and "stilted". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "stifled" 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 #16,873 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "stifled" 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 #16,873 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.