MaryvssharedTell them apart

Quick tell: Mary is a name, shared is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Mary” is a name and “shared” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,536
“Mary” frequency rank
#37,777
“shared” frequency rank
42313
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Mary shared
Definition weiblicher Vorname Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs share

Letter map: Mary vs shared

Shared letters muted; letters that set Mary and shared apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. Mary runs 4 letters (CVCV) against shared's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
Mary
6 ch
shared

Grammar separator: Mary vs shared

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Mary is aname and sharedaverb. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42313, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Mary is recorded at frequency rank #4,536, classified as aname, pronounced […]. shared is at rank #37,777, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 42313, this pair ranks #1,453,260 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Mary vs shared

Shared letters: ar. Private to "Mary": my. Private to "shared": dehs.

"Mary" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "shared" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Maryamry · marry · maryy · mmary · mray
  • sharedhsared · sahred · shaerd · sharde · sharedd · sharred · shhared · shraed

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Mary" and "shared" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Mary" is a name and "shared" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Mary" or "shared"?
"Mary" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,536 in our German list, against #37,777 for "shared". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "Mary" vs "shared" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Mary" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "shared" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,453,260 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Mary" and "shared" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs shared". 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 #1,453,260 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list