Which to use
“thrall” and “thrills” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #37,252
- “thrall” frequency rank
- #23,702
- “thrills” frequency rank
- 60954
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | thrall | thrills |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Slave; one under the control of another. | plural of thrill |
Where the eye mixes thrall and thrills
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. thrall runs 6 letters (CCCVCC) against thrills's 7 (CCCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: thrall vs thrills
A purely visual mix-up. thrall (/θɹɔːl/) and thrills (/θɹɪlz/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60954, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
thrall is recorded at frequency rank #37,252, classified as anoun, pronounced /θɹɔːl/. thrills is at rank #23,702, tagged as anoun, pronounced /θɹɪlz/.
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 60954, this pair ranks #97,198 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of thrall vs thrills
Shared letters: hlrt. Private to "thrall": a. Private to "thrills": is.
"thrall" · 6 letters · shape CCCVCC · "thrills" · 7 letters · shape CCCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "thrall" for "thrills" ever safe?
Frequency check: "thrall" vs "thrills" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "thrall" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "thrills" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #97,198 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "thrall" and "thrills" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "thrall vs trawl". 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 #97,198 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.