Which to use
“fail” is a verb and “fill” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #24,588
- “fail” frequency rank
- #38,807
- “fill” frequency rank
- 63395
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fail | fill |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Échouer. | Aussitôt, immédiatement, sitôt, tout de suite, d’abord. |
Where the eye mixes fail and fill
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: fail vs fill
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fail is \feɪl\ while fill is \ˈfiɫ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63395, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fail is recorded at frequency rank #24,588, classified as averb, pronounced \feɪl\. fill is at rank #38,807, tagged as anadv, pronounced \ˈfiɫ\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 63395, this pair ranks #82,172 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of fail vs fill
Shared letters: fil. Private to "fail": a. Private to "fill": -.
"fail" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "fill" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "fail" and "fill" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "fail" or "fill"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "fail" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fill" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #82,172 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fail" and "fill" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "filez vs fill". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #82,172 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.