bill
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "bill", 4-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "bill" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "bill" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
bill is aEnglishnoun. It means: A written list or inventory. (Now obsolete except in specific senses or set phrases; bill of lading, bill of goods, etc.) Pronounced /bɪl/. It ranks #729 in English word frequency. Often confused with BL and bit.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bill |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /bɪl/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #729 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for bill is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /bɪl/. Corpus data places it at rank #729 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 13 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 4 documented wrong-spelling variants for bill, with forms such as "bbill", "bil", and "blil". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "BL", "bit", "bin", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English bille, from Anglo-Norman bille, from Old French bulle, from Medieval Latin bulla (“seal, sealed document”). Doublet of bull (“papal bull; bubble”) and bulla. Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is bill, spelled B-I-L-L, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A written list or inventory. (Now obsolete except in specific senses or set phrases; bill of lading, bill of goods, etc.)
- 2A document, originally sealed; a formal statement or official memorandum. (Now obsolete except with certain qualifying words; bill of health, bill of sale etc.)
- 3A draft of a law, presented to a legislature for enactment; a proposed or projected law.
- 4A declaration made in writing, stating some wrong the complainant has suffered from the defendant, or a fault committed by some person against a law.
- 5A piece of paper money; a banknote.
- 6A piece of paper money; a banknote.
- 7One hundred pounds sterling.
- 8A written note of goods sold, services rendered, or work done, with the price or charge owing; an invoice.
- 9A written note of goods sold, services rendered, or work done, listing the price or charge paid; a receipt.
- 10A paper, written or printed, and posted up or given away, to advertise something, as a lecture, a play, or the sale of goods
- 11A writing that binds the signer or signers to pay a certain sum at a future day or on demand, with or without interest, as may be stated in the document; a bill of exchange. In the United States, it is usually called a note, a note of hand, or a promissory note.
- 12A set of items presented together.
- 13A list of pupils to be disciplined for breaking school rules.
Etymology
From Middle English bille, from Anglo-Norman bille, from Old French bulle, from Medieval Latin bulla (“seal, sealed document”). Doublet of bull (“papal bull; bubble”) and bulla.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: bbill,bil,blil,ibll
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for bill
Misspelling Variants of "bill"
Frequency rank: #729 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter B in our English index: