tilling

verb

"tilling" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“tilling” is uncommon English (frequency #62,573 among 3,151 “T” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#62,573
frequency rank, English
3,151
“T” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - present participle and gerund of till

Corpus desk

Index EN-tilling · tilling · English

tilling · rank #62,573 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #62,573
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,151
  • PHOTO-FINISH thusly

Nearest frequency peer: thusly (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Long-tail ranks near “tilling”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “tilling” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for tilling
PropertyValue
Headwordtilling
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters7
Frequency rank#62,573
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “tilling” in English

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right).tillingfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Rare peers in the same band: “thusly” (#62,572), “Thucydides” (#62,571), “tinkle” (#62,575). Among 3,151 “T” headwords, “tilling” is #62,573. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

tilling is uncommon English at frequency #62,573 among 3,151 “T” headwords, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "present participle and gerund of till".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for tilling, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English tillynge, tiliyng, tilyenge, tylynge, from Old English tiliende, tilġende, equivalent to till + -ing. The correct English form is tilling, spelled T-I-L-L-I-N-G.

Definition

  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of till

Etymology

From Middle English tillynge, tiliyng, tilyenge, tylynge, from Old English tiliende, tilġende, equivalent to till + -ing.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "tilling"?
"tilling" is spelled T-I-L-L-I-N-G.
What does "tilling" mean?
As a verb, "tilling" means: present participle and gerund of till
What is the origin of the word "tilling"?
From Middle English tillynge, tiliyng, tilyenge, tylynge, from Old English tiliende, tilġende, equivalent to till + -ing. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "tilling", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list