drilling
/ˈdɹɪlɪŋ/
"drilling" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“drilling” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #7,915 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #7,915
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 8
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The act or process of drilling.
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 | drilling |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈdɹɪlɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #7,915 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 8 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “drilling” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for drilling is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈdɹɪlɪŋ/. Corpus data places it at rank #7,915 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "The act or process of drilling.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for drilling, with forms such as "ddrilling", "dirlling", and "drililng". 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 8 confusable-pair relationships, "driving", "drinking", "dwelling", 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 drill + -ing. The correct English form is drilling, spelled D-R-I-L-L-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1The act or process of drilling.
Etymology
From drill + -ing.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ddrilling,dirlling,drililng,driling,drillign,drillingg,drillinng,drillnig,drliling,drrilling,rdilling
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of drilling - 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
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Using “drilling”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-R-I-L-L-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈdɹɪlɪŋ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “driving” - see the side-by-side comparison. drilling vs driving
- 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.