# spill

> English word · Verb · IPA /spɪl/ · frequency rank #9,103

## Definitions
1. To drop something so that it spreads out or makes a mess; to accidentally pour.
2. To spread out or fall out, as above.
3. To overflow out of a designated area.
4. To drop something that was intended to be caught.
5. To mar; to damage; to destroy by misuse; to waste.
6. To be destroyed, ruined, or wasted; to come to ruin; to perish; to waste.
7. To overflow or flow out, over or off something.
8. To cause or flow out and be lost or wasted; to shed.
9. To cause to be thrown from a mount, a carriage, etc.
10. To cover or decorate with slender pieces of wood, metal, ivory, etc.; to inlay.
11. To relieve a sail from the pressure of the wind, so that it can be more easily reefed or furled, or to lessen the strain.
12. To open the leadership of a parliamentary party for re-election.
13. To reveal information to an uninformed party.
14. To come undone.
15. To express (something), especially repeatedly or floridly; to be expressed.

## Etymology
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”).
Cognate with Dutch spillen (“to use needlessly, waste”), French gaspiller ("to waste, squander" < Germanic), Bavarian spillen (“to split, cleave, splinter”), Danish spilde (“to spill, waste”), Swedish spilla (“to spill, waste”), Icelandic spilla (“to contaminate, spoil”). See also spool.

## Easily confused with
- **SPL** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spill-vs-spl)
- **spin** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spill-vs-spin)
- **spit** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spill-vs-spit)
- **still** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spill-vs-still)
- **spite** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spill-vs-spite)
- **spine** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spill-vs-spine)
- **spoil** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spill-vs-spoil)
- **stall** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spill-vs-stall)
- **swell** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spill-vs-swell)
- **spins** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spill-vs-spins)
- **swirl** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spill-vs-swirl)
- **spire** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spill-vs-spire)
- **spilt** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spill-vs-spilt)
- **spool** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spill-vs-spool)
- **spiro** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spill-vs-spiro)
- **Stoll** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spill-vs-stoll)
- **spina** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spill-vs-spina)
- **spiny** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spill-vs-spiny)
- **spinal** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spill-vs-spinal)
- **spiral** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/spill-vs-spiral)

## Common misspellings (6)
`psill`, `sipll`, `spil`, `splil`, `sppill`, `sspill`

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