pill
/pɪl/
"pill" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pill” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #6,821 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #6,821
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 3
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A small, usually round or cylindrical object designed for easy swallowing, usually containing some sort of medication.
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 | pill |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /pɪl/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #6,821 |
| Misspellings tracked | 3 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “pill” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for pill is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /pɪl/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,821 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 3 likely wrong-spelling variants for pill, with forms such as "ipll", "plil", and "ppill". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "PL", "pin", "pit", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: * From Middle English pille (also pillem), a borrowing from Middle Low German pille or Middle Dutch pille (whence Dutch pil), probably from Latin pila, pilula. * (persuade or convince): Generalized from red pill. The correct English form is pill, spelled P-I-L-L.
Definition
- 1A small, usually round or cylindrical object designed for easy swallowing, usually containing some sort of medication.
- 2A small, usually round or cylindrical object designed for easy swallowing, usually containing some sort of medication.
- 3Contraceptive medication, usually in the form of a pill to be taken by a woman; an oral contraceptive pill.
- 4Something offensive, unpleasant or nauseous which must be accepted or endured.
- 5A contemptible, annoying, or unpleasant person.
- 6A comical or entertaining person.
- 7A small piece of any substance, for example a ball of fibers formed on the surface of a textile fabric by rubbing.
- 8A baseball.
- 9A bullet (projectile).
- 10A rounded rectangle containing a brief text caption indicating the tag or category that an item belongs to.
Etymology
* From Middle English pille (also pillem), a borrowing from Middle Low German pille or Middle Dutch pille (whence Dutch pil), probably from Latin pila, pilula. * (persuade or convince): Generalized from red pill.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ipll,plil,ppill
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of pill - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “pill”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-I-L-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /pɪl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “PL” - see the side-by-side comparison. pill vs PL
- 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.