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PlainSpell

spill

[spɪɫ]verb, noun

spill is spelled S-P-I-L-L: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 6.9 times per million words in written English, the 9,045th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, spill means “To drop something so that it spreads out or makes a mess; to accidentally pour” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in spill?

Letters5: S-P-I-L-L
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing6.9 times per million words; the 9,045th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone 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 spill?

Spill appears 6.9 times per million words in written English, the 9,045th 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 spill?

  • /spɪl/
  • US [spɪɫ]
  • [spɪo̯]

Spill 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: En-us-spill.ogg, En-au-spill.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with spill

Also written: spilt.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of spill

  • spills present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • spilling participle, present
  • spilled participle, past
  • spilt participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does spill mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To drop something so that it spreads out or makes a mess; to accidentally pour.

    I spilled some sticky juice on the kitchen floor.

  2. 2

    To spread out or fall out, as above.

    Some sticky juice spilled onto the kitchen floor.

  3. 3

    To overflow out of a designated area.

    The crowd spilled onto Maple Avenue.

  4. 4

    To drop something that was intended to be caught.

  5. 5

    To mar; to damage; to destroy by misuse; to waste.

  6. 6

    obsoleteTo be destroyed, ruined, or wasted; to come to ruin; to perish; to waste.

    This winter’s weather it waxeth cold, / And frost it freezeth on every hill, / And Boreas blows his blast so bold / That all our cattle are like to spill.

  7. 7

    To overflow or flow out, over or off something.

  8. 8

    To cause or flow out and be lost or wasted; to shed.

noun

  1. 1

    Any thing that has been spilled; the resulting mess.

  2. 2

    A fall or stumble.

    The bruise is from a bad spill he had last week.

  3. 3

    archaicSynonym of taper, a thin stick, long wick, etc. used to transfer flame.

  4. 4

    A peg or pin for plugging a hole, as in a cask'; a spile.

  5. 5

    A metallic rod or pin.

  6. 6

    A spillikin.

  7. 7

    A splinter caught in the skin.

  8. 8

    One of the thick laths or poles driven horizontally ahead of the main timbering in advancing a level in loose ground.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Spill in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchdéverser, répandre, renverser (transitive: to drop something so that it…), déversement (something that has been dropped)
Germanverschütten, schütten (transitive: to drop something so that it…), sich ergießen (intransitive: to spread out or fall out), fallen lassen, verpassen, vergeigen (transitive: to drop something that was intended…)
Portuguesederramar, entornar (transitive: to drop something so that it…)
Spanishderramar, verter, desparramar, efundir (transitive: to drop something so that it…), extravasarse (intransitive: to spread out or fall out)

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 spill come from?

From Middle English spillen, from Old English spillan, spildan (“to kill, destroy, waste”), from Proto-West Germanic *spilþijan, from Proto-Germanic *spilþijaną (“to spoil, kill, murder”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pel- (“to sunder, split, rend, tear”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after spill