bill
/bɪl/
"bill" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bill” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #729 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #729
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A written list or inventory. (Now obsolete except in specific senses or set phrases; bill of lading, bill of goods, etc.)
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| 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) |
Where “bill” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for bill is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, 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 generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for bill, with forms such as "bbill", "bil", and "blil". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "BL", "bit", "bin", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
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. The correct English form is bill, spelled B-I-L-L.
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
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of bill - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “bill”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is B-I-L-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /bɪl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “BL” - see the side-by-side comparison. bill vs BL
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.