missingvsshopsTell them apart

Quick tell: missing is a verb, shops is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“missing” is a verb and “shops” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,357
“missing” frequency rank
#11,970
“shops” frequency rank
55327
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature missing shops
Definition Partizip Präsens (present participle) des Verbs miss Plural des Substantivs shop

Letter map: missing vs shops

Shared letters muted; letters that set missing and shops apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. missing runs 7 letters (CVCCVCC) against shops's 5 (CCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
missing
5 ch
shops

Grammar separator: missing vs shops

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: missing is averb and shopsanoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55327, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

missing is recorded at frequency rank #43,357, classified as averb, pronounced […]. shops is at rank #11,970, tagged as anoun, 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 55327, this pair ranks #983,897 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of missing vs shops

Shared letters: s. Private to "missing": gimn. Private to "shops": hop.

"missing" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "shops" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • missingimssing · mising · misisng · missign · missingg · missinng · missnig · mißing
  • shopshsops · shhops · shopps · shopss · shosp · shpos · sohps · sshops

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "missing" and "shops" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "missing" is a verb and "shops" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "missing" or "shops"?
"shops" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,970 in our German list, against #43,357 for "missing". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "missing" and "shops".

  • Full dictionary entry for "missing" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "shops" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #983,897 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "missing" and "shops" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "missing vs puzzles". 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 #983,897 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