thrilledvsthrillsConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#7,862
“thrilled” frequency rank
#23,702
“thrills” frequency rank
31564
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature thrilled thrills
Definition simple past and past participle of thrill plural of thrill

Where the eye mixes thrilled and thrills

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. thrilled runs 8 letters (CCCVCCVC) against thrills's 7 (CCCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
thrilled
7 ch
thrills

Why the eye confuses thrilled with thrills

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: thrilled is /θɹɪld/ while thrills is /θɹɪlz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31564, 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/. 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 31564, this pair ranks #345,033 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of thrilled vs thrills

Shared letters: hilrt. Private to "thrilled": de. Private to "thrills": s.

"thrilled" · 8 letters · shape CCCVCCVC  ·  "thrills" · 7 letters · shape CCCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • thrilled ← htrilled · thhrilled · thirlled · thriled · thrileld · thrillde · thrilledd · thrliled
  • thrills ← htrills · thhrills · thirlls · thrillss · thrils · thrilsl · thrlils · thrrills

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "thrilled" and "thrills" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "thrilled" is a verb and "thrills" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "thrilled" vs "thrills" - which ranks higher?
"thrilled" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,862 in our English list, against #23,702 for "thrills". 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 "thrills" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #345,033 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "thrilled" and "thrills" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "thrills vs trill". 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 #345,033 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