Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
"GILLS" is a plural of: gill. |
Date "GILLS" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1593. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Literature | Gills (g hard). Wipe your gills (your mouth). The gills of fishes, like the mouth of man, are the organs of respiration. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Slang in 1811 | GILLS. The cheeks. To look rosy about the gills; to have a fresh complexion. To look merry about the gills: to appear cheerful. Source: 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. |
Transportation | A set of movable flaps at the rear of a cowling to control the flow of cooling air. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Wind | Air pump, air blower, lungs, bellows, blowpipe, fan, ventilator, punkah; branchiae, gills, flabellum, vertilabrum. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: GILLS |
| Specialty definitions using "GILLS": Branchial Region ♦ crab backer, CRAB BUTCHER ♦ flanged radiator, FROMENTY, FURMITY ♦ gilled radiator ♦ Ocean ♦ ribbed cooler, ROSY GILLS. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "GILLS": Hydrobranchiata. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | I take lungs now, gills come next week. (Futurama; writing credit: Lance Smith; Carl Colpaert) I'll take the gills. (Futurama; writing credit: Lance Smith; Carl Colpaert) Yes, gills. You don't need lungs anymore, right? (Futurama; writing credit: Lance Smith; Carl Colpaert) So you see Katie, fish have gills to extract oxygen from water. (Police Squad!; writing credit: Tino Insana; Nancy Steen) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | North Inlet - Winyah Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. This polychaete, Amphitrite sp., builds and dwells in a tube constructed of mud. The worm's white tentacles, used to build its tube and gather food particles, and red gills can be seen in this photo. Credit: National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERR). |  | Close up of gills on the nudibranch, Hexabranchus sanguineus, a swimming nudibranch. Credit: The Coral Kingdom. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | OCEAN, n. A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man -- who has no gills. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "GILLS" is generally used as a noun (plural) -- approximately 93.13% of the time. "GILLS" is used about 131 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (plural) | 93.13% | 122 | 29,069 |
| Noun (proper) | 6.11% | 8 | 124,375 |
| Lexical Verb (-s form) | 0.76% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 131 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes the usage of "GILLS" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified. |
| Name | Usage/Gender | Usage per 100 million Persons | Rank in USA |
| Gills | Last name | 1,000 | 14,061 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits. | |||
Expressions using "GILLS": green about the gills ♦ look green about the gills ♦ look green around the gills ♦ look rosy about the gills ♦ pull off the gills of fish. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "GILLS": fish-gills, vent-gills. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "GILLS"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | gushë (chin, craw, Gill, goitre, throat). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | خياشيم. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | хриле. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 腮 (lower part of cheeks). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | žábry. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | køleluftklapper. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | koelkieuwen. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | kidukset. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | volets de capot, ouïes de réglage d'air, ouïes, branchies, branchie (gill). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Kiemen. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | βράγχια. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | rossz színben van (to look green about the gills, to look ill, to look seedy). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | branchie, alette. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | " (branchia). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | えら (branchia). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | illsgay flaps de capote. (various references) branhii (Gill), bãrbie (chin, chin rest, dewlap, Gill). (various references) жабры (branchiae). (various references) giùran (barnacle goose, gills of a fish), garbhan (the gills of a fish. See giùran). (various references) aletas de capot. (various references) katmerli çene. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words ending with "GILLS": bluegills. (additional references) | |
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"GILLS" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: galle, Galles, Geils, gells, Ghiolla, gialli, giallo, gil, Gilel, giles, gille, gils, Giolla, glips, goils, golles, Gyhll, Gylys, igl, jills. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "GILLS" (pronounced gi"lz) |
| 3 | -i" l z | bills, chills, dills, distills, drills, fills, frills, fulfills, grills, hills, ills, instills, kills, Mills, mils, minimills, Nils, pills, refills, sills, skills, spills, stills, thrills, wills. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "g-i-l-l-s" | |
-1 letter: gill, ills, sill. | |
-2 letters: ill, lis. | |
-3 letters: is, li, si. | |
| Words containing the letters "g-i-l-l-s" | |
+1 letter: grills. | |
+2 letters: gallies, gillers, gillies, grilles, gullies, ligulas, ligules, lugsail, selling. | |
+3 letters: billbugs, billings, callings, fillings, galilees, galleins, galliass, galliots, galliums, ghillies, gillnets, gingalls, glassily, glossily, gorillas, grillers, illegals, illogics, jingalls, killings, legalise, legalism, legalist, linguals, losingly, lugsails, millages, millings, pillages, rollings, sallying, sculling, shelling, shigella, shilling, signally, skilling, slangily, slightly, smelling, snelling, spalling, spelling, spillage, spilling, stalling, stilling, sullying, swelling, swilling, tillages, villages. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Non-fiction 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Names: Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Translations: Modern 12. Derivations | 13. Rhymes 14. Anagrams 15. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
