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PlainSpell

till

/tɪl/preposition, conjunction, noun, verb

till is spelled T-I-L-L: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 62 times per million words in written English, the 1,696th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “til vs till” about 2,400 times a month (Google, United States). As a preposition, till means “Until; to, up to; as late as (a given time)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in till?

Letters4: T-I-L-L
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing62 times per million words; the 1,696th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Same letters

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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is till?

Till appears 62 times per million words in written English, the 1,696th 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 till?

  • /tɪl/

Till 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-till.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with till

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

til vs till2,400 G
till vs until50 B

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with till?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as till.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: lilt.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of till

  • tills plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • tilling participle, present
  • tilled participle, past

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

What does till mean?

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

preposition

  1. 1

    Until; to, up to; as late as (a given time).

    She stayed till the very end.

  2. 2

    Before (a certain time or event).

    It's twenty till two. (1:40)

  3. 3

    obsoleteTo, up to (physically).

    They led him till his tent

  4. 4

    obsoleteTo, toward (in attitude).

  5. 5

    So that (something may happen).

conjunction

  1. 1

    Until, until the time that.

    Maybe you can, maybe you can't: you won't know till you try.

noun

  1. 1

    UKA cash register.

  2. 2

    A removable box within a cash register containing the money.

    Pull all the tills and lock them in the safe.

  3. 3

    The contents of a cash register, for example at the beginning or end of the day or of a cashier's shift.

    My count of my till was 30 dollars short.

  4. 4

    A cash drawer in a bank, used by a teller.

  5. 5

    obsoleteA tray or drawer in a chest.

  6. 6

    glacial drift consisting of a mixture of clay, sand, pebbles and boulders

  7. 7

    manure or other material used to fertilize land

  8. 8

    A vetch; a tare.

verb

  1. 1

    To develop so as to improve or prepare for usage; to cultivate (said of knowledge, virtue, mind etc.).

  2. 2

    To work or cultivate or plough (soil); to prepare for growing vegetation and crops.

  3. 3

    To cultivate soil.

  4. 4

    obsoleteTo prepare; to get.

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

Till in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchjusqu'à (until), caisse enregistreuse (cash register), tiroir-caisse (box within a cash register), caisse (contents of a cash register), travailler, labourer (to work or cultivate)
Germanbis (until), Kasse, Registrierkasse, Ladenkasse (cash register), Kassenlade, Kassenschublade (box within a cash register)
Portugueseaté (until), caixa (cash register), arar (to work or cultivate)
Spanishhasta, hasta que (until), caja (cash register), arar, roturar (to work or cultivate)

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 till come from?

From Middle English til, from Northern Old English til, from or akin to Old Norse til (“to, till”); both from Proto-Germanic *til (“to, toward”), from Proto-Germanic *tilą (“planned point in time”). Not a contraction of until; rather, until comes from till with the prefix un- (“against; toward; up to”) also found in unto. Cognate with Old Frisian til (“to, till”), Danish til (“to”), Swedish till (“to, till”), Icelandic til (“to, till”). Also related to Old English til (“good”), German Ziel (“goal”), Gothic 𐍄𐌹𐌻 (til, “something fitting or suitable”).

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

What to look up after till