mil
/mɪl/
"mil" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“mil” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #10,579 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #10,579
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An angular mil, a unit of angular measurement equal to ¹⁄₆₄₀₀ of a complete circle. At 1000 metres one mil subtends about one metre (0.98 m). Also ¹⁄₆₀₀₀ and ¹⁄₆₃₀₀ are used in other countries.
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 | mil |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /mɪl/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #10,579 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “mil” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for mil is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /mɪl/. Corpus data places it at rank #10,579 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
mil doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "my", "Mr", "MS", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Ultimately from Latin millesimum. The clippings come by way of the clipped words (e.g., millilitre, millimetre, milliradian). The correct English form is mil, spelled M-I-L.
Definition
- 1An angular mil, a unit of angular measurement equal to ¹⁄₆₄₀₀ of a complete circle. At 1000 metres one mil subtends about one metre (0.98 m). Also ¹⁄₆₀₀₀ and ¹⁄₆₃₀₀ are used in other countries.
- 2A unit of measurement equal to ¹⁄₁₀₀₀ of an inch (25.4 µm), usually used for thin objects, such as sheets of plastic.
- 3A former subdivision (¹⁄₁₀₀₀) of the Maltese lira.
- 4Clipping of milliliter.
- 5Clipping of millimeter.
- 6Clipping of milliradian.
Etymology
Ultimately from Latin millesimum. The clippings come by way of the clipped words (e.g., millilitre, millimetre, milliradian).
This word in other languages
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 “mil”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-I-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /mɪl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “my” - see the side-by-side comparison. mil vs my
- 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.