Which to use
“till” is a preposition and “tilly” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,706
- “till” frequency rank
- #31,380
- “tilly” frequency rank
- 33086
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | till | tilly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Until; to, up to; as late as (a given time). | An extra product given to a customer at no additional charge; a lagniappe. |
Where the eye mixes till and tilly
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between till and tilly
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: till is /tɪl/ while tilly is /ˈtɪli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “till” sits inside “tilly”, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33086, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
till is recorded at frequency rank #1,706, classified as aprep, pronounced /tɪl/. tilly is at rank #31,380, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈtɪli/.
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 33086, this pair ranks #332,368 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of till vs tilly
Shared letters: ilt. Private to "till": -. Private to "tilly": y.
"till" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "tilly" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "till" and "tilly" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "till" or "tilly" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "till" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tilly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #332,368 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "till" and "tilly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tilly vs tulle". 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 #332,368 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.