Which to use
“sawn” and “shown” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #43,902
- “sawn” frequency rank
- #1,354
- “shown” frequency rank
- 45256
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sawn | shown |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | past participle of saw | past participle of show |
Letter map: sawn vs shown
Shared letters muted; letters that set sawn and shown apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. sawn runs 4 letters (CVCC) against shown's 5 (CCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Corpus notes: sawn and shown
sawn and shown are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45256, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sawn is recorded at frequency rank #43,902, classified as averb. shown is at rank #1,354, tagged as averb, pronounced /ʃəʊn/.
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 45256, this pair ranks #222,926 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sawn vs shown
Shared letters: nsw. Private to "sawn": a. Private to "shown": ho.
"sawn" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "shown" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "sawn" for "shown" ever safe?
Frequency check: "sawn" vs "shown" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "sawn" and "shown".
- Full dictionary entry for "sawn" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "shown" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #222,926 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sawn" and "shown" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "savin vs sawn". 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 #222,926 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.