Which to use
“sate” is a verb and “shame” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #48,469
- “sate” frequency rank
- #2,761
- “shame” frequency rank
- 51230
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sate | shame |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To satisfy the appetite or desire of; to fill up. | An uncomfortable or painful feeling due to recognition or consciousness of one's own impropriety or dishonor, or something being exposed that should have been kept private. |
Where the eye mixes sate and shame
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. sate runs 4 letters (CVCV) against shame's 5 (CCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: sate vs shame
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sate is /seɪt/ while shame is /ʃeɪm/. 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 51230, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sate is recorded at frequency rank #48,469, classified as averb, pronounced /seɪt/. shame is at rank #2,761, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ʃeɪm/.
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 51230, this pair ranks #167,229 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sate vs shame
Shared letters: aes. Private to "sate": t. Private to "shame": hm.
"sate" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "shame" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "sate" for "shame" ever safe?
Which is more common, "sate" or "shame"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "sate" and "shame" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "sate" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "shame" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #167,229 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sate" and "shame" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "saki vs sate". 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 #167,229 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.