instil
/ɪnˈstɪl/
"instil" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“instil” is an uncommon English word, ranked #60,882 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #60,882
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Australia, Ireland, and UK standard spelling of instill.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | instil |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ɪnˈstɪl/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #60,882 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “instil” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for instil is 6 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɪnˈstɪl/. Corpus data places it at rank #60,882 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Australia, Ireland, and UK standard spelling of instill.".
instil doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is instil, spelled I-N-S-T-I-L.
Definition
- 1Australia, Ireland, and UK standard spelling of instill.
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 “instil”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is I-N-S-T-I-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɪnˈstɪl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.