tillvsTillyWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: till is a noun, Tilly is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“till” is a noun and “Tilly” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#36,617
“till” frequency rank
#32,218
“Tilly” frequency rank
68835
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature till Tilly
Definition Graine oléagineuse venant de l’Inde. Commune française, située dans le département de l’Eure.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set till and Tilly apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
till
5 ch
Tilly

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: till is \til\ while Tilly is \ti.li\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “till” sits inside “Tilly”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68835, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

till is recorded at frequency rank #36,617, classified as anoun, pronounced \til\. Tilly is at rank #32,218, tagged as aname, pronounced \ti.li\.

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 68835, this pair ranks #57,493 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of till vs Tilly

Shared letters: ilt. Private to "till": -. Private to "Tilly": y.

"till" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Tilly" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tillitll · tlil · ttill
  • Tillyitlly · tillyy · tily · tilyl · tlily · ttilly

Frequency comparison

till#36,617
Tilly#32,218

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "till" and "Tilly" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "till" is a noun and "Tilly" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "till" or "Tilly"?
"Tilly" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,218 in our French list, against #36,617 for "till". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering till vs Tilly

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “till”; for a name, it's “Tilly”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “till” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list