Filler

How to spell filler

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce filler

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does filler mean?

1. nounA substance or material used to fill cracks, holes, or empty space, often before painting or finishing.
2. nounMaterial added to occupy time or space without adding much value, such as a minor article or a spoken pause.

Filler in a sentence

• He smoothed a layer of filler over the cracks before painting the wall.

• The magazine ran a short filler piece to round out the back page.

• The cushion was stuffed with a cheap synthetic filler.

• The speaker used too much filler such as 'um' and 'you know'.

Where does filler come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a homegrown English word built on the verb 'fill', which descends from Old English 'fyllan', meaning 'to make full', itself rooted in the same Germanic family as the adjective 'full'. The agent suffix '-er', also of native Germanic origin, was attached to mark a thing that does the filling, giving 'filler' its plain sense of any material or item that occupies an empty space. The word as a noun is relatively modern, becoming common from the 1800s as trades such as carpentry, painting, and printing needed a tidy term for the paste, putty, or padding that closes a gap. Its meaning then spread into everyday speech, covering everything from the spoken 'um' that fills a pause to the throwaway article that fills a page. The spelling trap is simple but real: the verb 'fill' already carries a double 'l', so the noun keeps both, and adding '-er' never reduces them to a single letter.

How the word is built

• fill (Old English fyllan: to make full)
• -er (noun suffix marking a thing that performs or enables an action)