# skill

> English word · Noun · IPA /skɪl/ · frequency rank #3,526

## Definitions
1. A capacity to do something well; a technique, an ability, usually acquired or learned, as opposed to abilities that are regarded as innate.
2. Discrimination; judgment; propriety; reason; cause.
3. Knowledge; understanding.
4. Display of art; exercise of ability; contrivance; address.

## Etymology
From Middle English skill, skille (also schil, schile), from Old Norse skil (“a distinction, discernment, knowledge”), from Proto-Germanic *skilją (“separation, limit”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to split, cut”). Cognate with Danish skel (“a separation, boundary, divide”), Swedish skäl (“reason”), Dutch verschil (“difference”) and schillen (“to separate the outer layer (schil) from the product”, verb).

## Easily confused with
- **skin** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/skill-vs-skin)
- **soil** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/skill-vs-soil)
- **skip** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/skill-vs-skip)
- **skim** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/skill-vs-skim)
- **skit** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/skill-vs-skit)
- **still** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/skill-vs-still)
- **small** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/skill-vs-small)
- **smile** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/skill-vs-smile)
- **smell** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/skill-vs-smell)
- **spell** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/skill-vs-spell)
- **skull** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/skill-vs-skull)
- **skirt** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/skill-vs-skirt)
- **spill** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/skill-vs-spill)
- **skins** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/skill-vs-skins)
- **stall** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/skill-vs-stall)
- **swell** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/skill-vs-swell)
- **swirl** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/skill-vs-swirl)
- **spilt** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/skill-vs-spilt)
- **snell** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/skill-vs-snell)
- **Stoll** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/skill-vs-stoll)

## Common misspellings (6)
`ksill`, `sikll`, `skil`, `skkill`, `sklil`, `sskill`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/skill