triesvstrillWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“tries” and “trill” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#2,868
“tries” frequency rank
#40,489
“trill” frequency rank
43357
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tries trill
Definition plural of try A rapid alternation between an indicated note and the one above it as an ornament; in musical notation usually indicated with the letters tr written above the staff.

Where the eye mixes tries and trill

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
tries
5 ch
trill

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. tries (/tɹaɪz/) and trill (/tɹɪl/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43357, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tries is recorded at frequency rank #2,868, classified as anoun, pronounced /tɹaɪz/. trill is at rank #40,489, tagged as anoun, pronounced /tɹɪl/.

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 43357, this pair ranks #240,758 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tries vs trill

Shared letters: irt. Private to "tries": es. Private to "trill": l.

"tries" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC  ·  "trill" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • triesrties · treis · triess · trise · trries · ttries
  • trillrtill · tirll · tril · trlil · trrill · ttrill

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tries" and "trill" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/tɹaɪz/ versus /tɹɪl/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "tries" or "trill"?
"tries" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,868 in our English list, against #40,489 for "trill". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list