Which to use
“shore” is a verb and “smoke” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #37,779
- “shore” frequency rank
- #33,824
- “smoke” frequency rank
- 71603
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shore | smoke |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs shear | Rauch von etwas Brennendem |
Where the eye mixes shore and smoke
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. shore and smoke follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: shore vs smoke
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: shore is [ˈʃoːɐ̯…] while smoke is [sməʊk]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71603, 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…]. smoke is at rank #33,824, tagged as anoun, pronounced [sməʊk].
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 71603, this pair ranks #412,086 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of shore vs smoke
Shared letters: eos. Private to "shore": hr. Private to "smoke": km.
"shore" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "smoke" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "shore" for "smoke" ever safe?
Frequency check: "shore" vs "smoke" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
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 "smoke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #412,086 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shore" and "smoke" 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 #412,086 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.