skillsvsStilesTell them apart

Which to use

“skills” and “Stiles” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#33,013
“skills” frequency rank
#35,742
“Stiles” frequency rank
68755
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature skills Stiles
Definition Pluriel de skill. Génitif singulier de Stil.

Where the eye mixes skills and Stiles

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. skills (CCVCCC) and Stiles (CCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
skills
6 ch
Stiles

Look-alike desk: skills vs Stiles

A purely visual mix-up. skills (\ˈskɪlz\) and Stiles (\ˈʃtiːləs\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68755, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

skills is recorded at frequency rank #33,013, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈskɪlz\. Stiles is at rank #35,742, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈʃtiːləs\.

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 68755, this pair ranks #57,850 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of skills vs Stiles

Shared letters: ils. Private to "skills": k. Private to "Stiles": et.

"skills" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC  ·  "Stiles" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • skills ← ksills · siklls · skillss · skils · skilsl · skkills · sklils · sskills
  • Stiles ← sitles · sstiles · stiels · stiless · stilles · stilse · stlies · sttiles

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "skills" and "Stiles" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ˈskɪlz\ versus \ˈʃtiːləs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "skills" or "Stiles"?
"skills" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,013 in our French list, against #35,742 for "Stiles". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "skills" and "Stiles" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "skills" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Stiles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #57,850 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "skills" and "Stiles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "socles vs Stiles". 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 #57,850 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list