sill
/sɪl/noun, adjective
sill is spelled S-I-L-L: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.0 times per million words in written English, the 28,918th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, sill means “A breast wall; window breast; horizontal brink which forms the base of a window” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of sill is sills.
How many letters and syllables are in sill?
| Letters | 4: S-I-L-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.0 times per million words; the 28,918th 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 sill?
Sill appears 1.0 times per million words in written English, the 28,918th 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 sill?
- /sɪl/
Sill 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-sill.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of sill
- sills plural
- cill
- more sill comparative
- most sill superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does sill mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A breast wall; window breast; horizontal brink which forms the base of a window.
She looked out the window resting her elbows on the window sill.
- 2
A threshold; horizontal structural member of a building near ground level on a foundation or pilings, or lying on the ground, and bearing the upright portion of a frame; a sill plate.
- 3
A stratum of rock, especially an intrusive layer of igneous rock lying parallel to surrounding strata.
- 4
A threshold or brink across the bottom of a canal lock for the gates to shut against.
- 5
A raised area at the base of the nasal aperture in the skull.
the nasal sill
- 6
The inner edge of the bottom of an embrasure.
- 7
UKA young herring.
- 8
The shaft or thill of a carriage.
adjective
- 1
rareslangSilly.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Sill in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | rebord |
| German | Fensterbank, Sims, Fensterbrett, Brüstung, Fensterbrüstung , Lagergang |
| Portuguese | parapeito |
| Spanish | lámina |
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 sill come from?
From Middle English sille, selle, sülle, from Old English syll, syl (“sill, threshold, foundation, base, basis”), from Proto-Germanic *sulī (“bar, sill”), from Proto-Indo-European *sel-, *swel- (“beam, board, frame, threshold”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).