pilly
adjective, noun
pilly is spelled P-I-L-L-Y: 5 letters. It appears about once in every 42 million words in written English, the 199,120th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, pilly means “Covered in pills (particles created by mechanical wear)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in pilly?
| Letters | 5: P-I-L-L-Y |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 42 million words; the 199,120th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is pilly?
Pilly appears about once in every 42 million words in written English, the 199,120th 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).
Forms of pilly
- pillier comparative
- pilliest superlative
- pillies plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does pilly mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Covered in pills (particles created by mechanical wear).
After many washings, my favorite sweater is faded and pilly.
- 2
Characterized by or involving many pills.
noun
- 1
informalPill.
- 2
informalA pillhead.
- 3
informalThe lilly-pilly.
- 4
informalPilchard.
- 5
informalOne who rides pillion.
- 6
Scotlandpillow
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does pilly come from?
From pill + -y. In some cases, pill is a clipping of a longer word.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).