shorevsstörenWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#37,779
“shore” frequency rank
#4,390
“stören” frequency rank
42169
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature shore stören
Definition Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs shear jemanden bei etwas belästigen, von etwas ablenken, einen Vorgang hemmen, ein Vorhaben hemmen, ärgerlicherweise aufhalten

Where the eye mixes shore and stören

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

5 ch
shore
6 ch
stören

Look-alike desk: shore vs stören

A purely visual mix-up. shore ([ˈʃoːɐ̯…]) and stören ([ˈʃtøːʁən]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42169, 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…]. stören is at rank #4,390, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈʃtøːʁən].

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 42169, this pair ranks #1,457,513 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of shore vs stören

Shared letters: ers. Private to "shore": ho. Private to "stören": ntö.

"shore" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "stören" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • shorehsore · shhore · shoer · shorre · shroe · sohre · sshore

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "shore" and "stören" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈʃoːɐ̯…] versus [ˈʃtøːʁən]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "shore" or "stören" show up more?
"stören" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,390 in our German list, against #37,779 for "shore". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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 "stören" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,457,513 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "shore" and "stören" 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 #1,457,513 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