thrilledvsthrillerConfusable pair

Quick tell: thrilled is a verb, thriller is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“thrilled” is a verb and “thriller” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,862
“thrilled” frequency rank
#8,219
“thriller” frequency rank
16081
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature thrilled thriller
Definition simple past and past participle of thrill Something that thrills.

Where the eye mixes thrilled and thriller

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. thrilled and thriller follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
thrilled
8 ch
thriller

Why the eye confuses thrilled with thriller

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: thrilled is /θɹɪld/ while thriller is /ˈθɹɪ.lə/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “thrilled” becomes r in “thriller”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16081, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

thrilled is recorded at frequency rank #7,862, classified as averb, pronounced /θɹɪld/. thriller is at rank #8,219, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈθɹɪ.lə/.

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 16081, this pair ranks #460,050 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of thrilled vs thriller

Shared letters: ehilrt. Private to "thrilled": d. Private to "thriller": -.

"thrilled" · 8 letters · shape CCCVCCVC  ·  "thriller" · 8 letters · shape CCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • thrilled ← htrilled · thhrilled · thirlled · thriled · thrileld · thrillde · thrilledd · thrliled
  • thriller ← htriller · thhriller · thirller · thrilelr · thriler · thrillerr · thrillre · thrliler

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "thrilled" and "thriller" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "thrilled" is a verb and "thriller" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "thrilled" or "thriller" show up more?
"thrilled" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,862 in our English list, against #8,219 for "thriller". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "thrilled" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "thriller" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #460,050 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "thrilled" and "thriller" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "thriller vs tiller". 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 #460,050 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list