# chill

> English word · Noun · IPA /tʃɪl/ · frequency rank #5,304

## Definitions
1. A moderate, but uncomfortable and penetrating coldness.
2. A 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.
3. An 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.
4. An 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.
5. The hardened part of a casting, such as the tread of a carriage wheel.
6. A lack of warmth and cordiality; unfriendliness.
7. Calmness; equanimity.
8. A sense of style; trendiness; savoir faire.
9. A chilling effect; an atmosphere of this.

## 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.

## Easily confused with
- **chip** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chill-vs-chip)
- **chin** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chill-vs-chin)
- **coil** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chill-vs-coil)
- **chit** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chill-vs-chit)
- **coll** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chill-vs-coll)
- **cull** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chill-vs-cull)
- **Chiu** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chill-vs-chiu)
- **China** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chill-vs-china)
- **chips** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chill-vs-chips)
- **ching** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chill-vs-ching)
- **coils** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chill-vs-coils)
- **chime** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chill-vs-chime)
- **chino** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chill-vs-chino)
- **chimp** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chill-vs-chimp)
- **chirp** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chill-vs-chirp)
- **chins** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chill-vs-chins)
- **chink** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chill-vs-chink)
- **chula** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chill-vs-chula)
- **chilly** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chill-vs-chilly)
- **chills** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/chill-vs-chills)

## Common misspellings (6)
`cchill`, `chhill`, `chil`, `chlil`, `cihll`, `hcill`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/chill