shamevsshoreWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#43,491
“shame” frequency rank
#37,779
“shore” frequency rank
81270
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature shame shore
Definition jemanden beschämen Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs shear

Letter map: shame vs shore

Shared letters muted; letters that set shame and shore apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. shame and shore follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
shame
5 ch
shore

Corpus notes: shame and shore

shame and shore 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 81270, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

shame is recorded at frequency rank #43,491, classified as averb, pronounced […]. shore is at rank #37,779, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈʃoːɐ̯…].

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 81270, this pair ranks #179,080 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of shame vs shore

Shared letters: ehs. Private to "shame": am. Private to "shore": or.

"shame" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "shore" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • shame ← hsame · sahme · shaem · shamme · shhame · shmae · sshame
  • shore ← hsore · shhore · shoer · shorre · shroe · sohre · sshore

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "shame" for "shore" ever safe?
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: "shame" vs "shore" - which ranks higher?
"shore" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,779 in our German list, against #43,491 for "shame". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "shame" and "shore". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "shame" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "shore" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #179,080 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "shame" and "shore" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs shame". 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 #179,080 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