mysteryvssharedConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#17,368
“mystery” frequency rank
#37,777
“shared” frequency rank
55145
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mystery shared
Definition Geheimnis, Mysterium Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs share

Letter map: mystery vs shared

Shared letters muted; letters that set mystery and shared apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. mystery runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against shared's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
mystery
6 ch
shared

Grammar separator: mystery vs shared

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mystery is anoun and sharedaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55145, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mystery is recorded at frequency rank #17,368, classified as anoun, 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 55145, this pair ranks #991,036 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mystery vs shared

Shared letters: ers. Private to "mystery": mty. Private to "shared": adh.

"mystery" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "shared" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mysterymmystery · msytery · mysetry · mysstery · mysterry · mysteryy · mysteyr · mystrey
  • sharedhsared · sahred · shaerd · sharde · sharedd · sharred · shhared · shraed

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mystery" for "shared" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mystery" is a noun and "shared" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mystery" or "shared"?
"mystery" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,368 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.

What to do next

You've compared "mystery" and "shared". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mystery" 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 #991,036 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mystery" 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 #991,036 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