What does "pill" mean?
A small, usually round or cylindrical object designed for easy swallowing, usually containing some sort of medication.
Pill
/pɪl/ name, noun, verb, slang
name, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A small, usually round or cylindrical object designed for easy swallowing, usually containing some sort of medication.
- Grammar: pill is listed as name, noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: tablet, anovulant, anovulatory drug, bag.
- Useful contrasts: aerosols, asset, delight.
- Usage evidence: The vitamin pill contains abundant nutrition.
How to use "pill"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "pill" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "pill" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "pill" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "pill" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "pill" is acting as name, noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "tablet" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "pill", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A small, usually round or cylindrical object designed for easy swallowing, usually containing some sort of medication. broadly
"Take two pills every hour in the apyrexia of intermittent fever, until eight are taken."
- 2 The peel or skin. obsolete
"Some be covered with crusts or hard pills, as the locust"
- 3 An inlet on the coast; a small tidal pool or bay. Pill can occur in the name of such an inlet. UK, regional
"Portishead, lying west-north-west of Bristol, on the Severn, had a small port from medieval times on its pill, or inlet, and began to develop as a seaside resort early in the nineteenth century, when it was served by steam packets from Bristol."
- 4 a dose of medicine in the form of a small pellet wordnet
- 5 A small, usually round or cylindrical object designed for easy swallowing, usually containing some sort of medication.; Such an object that is of solid constitution (usually of compressed, bonded powder) rather than a capsule (with a shell containing loose powder or liquid). broadly
Show 12 more definitions
- 6 something that resembles a tablet of medicine in shape or size wordnet
- 7 Contraceptive medication, usually in the form of a pill to be taken by a woman; an oral contraceptive pill. definite, informal, uncountable
"Jane went on the pill when she left for college."
- 8 a contraceptive in the form of a pill containing estrogen and progestin to inhibit ovulation and so prevent conception wordnet
- 9 Something offensive, unpleasant or nauseous which must be accepted or endured.
""It's a sad unpalatable truth," said Mr. Pembroke, thinking that the despondency might be personal, "but one must accept it. My sister and Gerald, I am thankful to say, have accepted it, so naturally it has been a little pill.""
- 10 something unpleasant or offensive that must be tolerated or endured wordnet
- 11 A contemptible, annoying, or unpleasant person. slang
"You see, he's egging Phyllis on to marry Wilbert Cream. [...] And when a man like that eggs, something has to give, especially when the girl's a pill like Phyllis, who always does what Daddy tells her."
- 12 a unpleasant or tiresome person wordnet
- 13 A comical or entertaining person. slang
- 14 A small piece of any substance, for example a ball of fibers formed on the surface of a textile fabric by rubbing.
"One sleeve, threadbare and loaded with what my mother called “sweater pills,” hung halfway to the floor."
- 15 A baseball. slang
""Strike two!" bawled the umpire. I threw the pill back to Tom with a heart which drummed above the noise of the rooters along the side lines."
- 16 A bullet (projectile). slang
- 17 A rounded rectangle containing a brief text caption indicating the tag or category that an item belongs to.
Verb
- 1 Of a woven fabric surface, to form small matted balls of fiber. intransitive
"This sweater is already pilled: it fuzzed after the very first wash."
- 2 To peel; to remove the outer layer of hair, skin, or bark. obsolete
- 3 To form into the shape of a pill.
"Pilling is a skill rarely used by modern pharmacists."
- 4 To peel; to make by removing the skin.
"[Jacob] pilled white streaks[…]in the rods."
- 5 To medicate with pills; to administer pills to. transitive
"She pills herself with all sorts of herbal medicines."
Show 4 more definitions
- 6 To be peeled; to peel off in flakes.
- 7 To persuade or convince someone of something. Internet, transitive
- 8 To pillage; to despoil or impoverish. obsolete
"So syr Lucan departed for he was greuously wounded in many places And so as he yede he sawe and herkened by the mone lyght how that pyllars and robbers were comen in to the felde To pylle and robbe many a ful noble knyghte of brochys and bedys of many a good rynge & of many a ryche Iewel / and who that were not deed al oute"
- 9 To blackball (a potential club member). UK, dated, slang, transitive
"“I pilled him because he is a liar,” said Thackeray. “He calls himself 'ill' when he isn't.”"
Proper Noun
- 1 A village in Pill and Easton-in-Gordano parish, North Somerset district, Somerset, England (OS grid ref ST5275).
- 2 A municipality of Tyrol, Austria.
- 3 A surname.
Example
"The vitamin pill contains abundant nutrition."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "pill"?
Common synonyms include: tablet, anovulant, anovulatory drug, bag, ball, bastard.
How do you use "pill" in a sentence?
The vitamin pill contains abundant nutrition.
How do you pronounce "pill"?
Pronounced /pɪl/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
* From Middle English pille (also pillem), a borrowing from Middle Low German pille or Middle Dutch pille (whence Dutch pil), probably from Latin pila, pilula. * (persuade or convince): Generalized from red pill.
Etymology 2
From Middle English pillen, pilen, from Old English pilian (“to peel”), from Latin pilō (“depilate”), from pilus (“hair”). Doublet of peel.
Etymology 3
From Middle English *pill, *pyll, from Old English pyll (“a pool, pill”), from Proto-Germanic *pullijaz (“small pool, ditch, creek”), diminutive of Proto-Germanic *pullaz (“pool, stream”), from Proto-Indo-European *bl̥nos (“bog, marsh”). Cognate with Old English pull (“pool, creek”), Scots poll (“slow moving stream, creek, inlet”), Icelandic pollur (“pond, pool, puddle”). More at pool.
Etymology 4
From the common Welsh placename element Pil meaning "tidal pool, harbor," itself borrowed from English pill (“tidal creek”).
Etymology 5
English surname, both from the noun pill (originally "little ball") and from sense 3 (“inlet, tidal creek”).