distill

verb

"distill" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“distill” is uncommon English (frequency #54,741 among 3,470 “D” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#54,741
frequency rank, English
3,470
“D” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - US standard spelling of distil.

Corpus desk

Index EN-distill · distill · English

distill · rank #54,741 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #54,741
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,470
  • PHOTO-FINISH disreputable

Nearest frequency peer: disreputable (-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.

Long-tail ranks near “distill”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “distill” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for distill
PropertyValue
Headworddistill
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters7
Frequency rank#54,741
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “distill” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).distillfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Rare peers in the same band: “disreputable” (#54,740), “distiller” (#54,742), “disastrously” (#54,739). Among 3,470 “D” headwords, “distill” is #54,741. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

distill is uncommon English at frequency #54,741 among 3,470 “D” headwords, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "US standard spelling of distil.".

distill doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is distill, spelled D-I-S-T-I-L-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    US standard spelling of distil.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how distill appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. There is ſome ſoule of goodneſſe in things euill, / VVould men obſeruingly diſtill it out.
  2. My doctrine ſhall drop as the raine: my ſpeach ſhall diſtill as the deaw, as the ſmal raine vpon the tender herbe, and as the ſhowres vpon the graſſe.

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 "distill"?
"distill" is spelled D-I-S-T-I-L-L.
What does "distill" mean?
As a verb, "distill" means: US standard spelling of distil.
What language does "distill" come from?
"distill" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "distill", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list