krill
/kɹɪl/noun
krill is spelled K-R-I-L-L: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 45,363rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, krill means “Any of several small marine crustacean species of plankton in the order Euphausiacea in the class Malacostraca” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of krill is krills.
How many letters and syllables are in krill?
| Letters | 5: K-R-I-L-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 45,363rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is krill?
Krill appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 45,363rd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce krill?
- /kɹɪl/
Krill has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-krill.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of krill
- krills plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does krill mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Any of several small marine crustacean species of plankton in the order Euphausiacea in the class Malacostraca.
- 2
slangCrack cocaine.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Krill in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense small marine crustacean:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does krill come from?
From Norwegian krill (“fry of fish”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).