shorevsShowWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#37,779
“shore” frequency rank
#1,333
“Show” frequency rank
39112
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature shore Show
Definition Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs shear Vorführung eines (großen) Unterhaltungsprogramms vor Publikum (beispielsweise im Theater oder Varieté; oft in Fernsehen oder Radio übertragen), teilweise mit Informationscharakter

Where the eye mixes shore and Show

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
shore
4 ch
Show

Visual trap between shore and Show

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: shore is [ˈʃoːɐ̯…] while Show is [ʃɔʊ̯]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39112, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

shore is recorded at frequency rank #37,779, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈʃoːɐ̯…]. Show is at rank #1,333, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ʃɔʊ̯].

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 39112, this pair ranks #1,545,756 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of shore vs Show

Shared letters: hos. Private to "shore": er. Private to "Show": w.

"shore" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "Show" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • shorehsore · shhore · shoer · shorre · shroe · sohre · sshore
  • Showhsow · shhow · showw · shwo · sohw · sshow

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "shore" and "Show" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "shore" is a verb and "Show" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "shore" or "Show"?
"Show" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,333 in our German list, against #37,779 for "shore". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "shore" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Show" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,545,756 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "shore" and "Show" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shore vs Sire". 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 #1,545,756 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