shadesvssharedWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“shades” and “shared” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#31,790
“shades” frequency rank
#37,777
“shared” frequency rank
69567
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature shades shared
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs shade Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs share

Letter map: shades vs shared

Shared letters muted; letters that set shades and shared apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
shades
6 ch
shared

Corpus notes: shades and shared

shades and shared are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69567, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

shades is recorded at frequency rank #31,790, classified as averb, 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 69567, this pair ranks #472,667 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of shades vs shared

Shared letters: adehs. Private to "shades": -. Private to "shared": r.

"shades" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "shared" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • shadeshsades · sahdes · shaddes · shadess · shadse · shaeds · shdaes · shhades
  • sharedhsared · sahred · shaerd · sharde · sharedd · sharred · shhared · shraed

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "shades" and "shared" be used interchangeably?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "shades" vs "shared" - which ranks higher?
"shades" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,790 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 "shades" vs "shared" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "shades" 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 #472,667 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "shades" 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 #472,667 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