chill
/tʃɪl/
"chill" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“chill” has 6 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #5,304. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #5,304
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A moderate, but uncomfortable and penetrating coldness.
Corpus desk
Index EN-chill · chill · English
chill · rank #5,304 · 6 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #5,304
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 6 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH cherry
Nearest frequency peer: cherry (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “chill”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- carpet
carpet
94,700 corpus weight
- ceiling
ceiling
94,699 corpus weight
- cherry
cherry
94,698 corpus weight
- chill
chill
94,697 corpus weight
- classificat…
classification
94,696 corpus weight
- clue
clue
94,695 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “chill” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | chill |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /tʃɪl/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #5,304 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “chill” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 6 spelling variants around chill (IPA /tʃɪl/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #5,304 among 5,599 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 9 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for chill, with forms such as "cchill", "chhill", and "chil". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "chip", "chin", "coil", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English chele, chile, from Old English ċiele, ċele (“cold; coldness”), from Proto-West Germanic *kali, from Proto-Germanic *kaliz, from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to be cold”). Closely related with Dutch kil. Also akin to cool, cold, gel, and c… The correct English form is chill, spelled C-H-I-L-L.
Definition
- 1A moderate, but uncomfortable and penetrating coldness.
- 2A sudden penetrating sense of cold, especially one that causes a brief trembling nerve response through the body; the trembling response itself; often associated with illness: fevers and chills, or susceptibility to illness.
- 3An uncomfortable and numbing sense of fear, dread, anxiety, or alarm, often one that is sudden and usually accompanied by a trembling nerve response resembling the body's response to biting cold.
- 4An iron mould or portion of a mould, serving to cool rapidly, and so to harden, the surface of molten iron brought in contact with it.
- 5The hardened part of a casting, such as the tread of a carriage wheel.
- 6A lack of warmth and cordiality; unfriendliness.
- 7Calmness; equanimity.
- 8A sense of style; trendiness; savoir faire.
- 9A chilling effect; an atmosphere of this.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how chill appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
There was a chill in the air.
Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmil…
Etymology
From Middle English chele, chile, from Old English ċiele, ċele (“cold; coldness”), from Proto-West Germanic *kali, from Proto-Germanic *kaliz, from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to be cold”). Closely related with Dutch kil. Also akin to cool, cold, gel, and congeal, which see.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- cchill
- chhill
- chil
- chlil
- cihll
- hcill
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of chill - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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
How do you spell "chill"?
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "chill", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "chill". Here's where to go from here.
- "chill" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "chip". View pair
- 6 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #5,304 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "C" letter cohort. C–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.