Which to use
“seamen” is a noun and “shaken” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #31,339
- “seamen” frequency rank
- #13,059
- “shaken” frequency rank
- 44398
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | seamen | shaken |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of seaman | Moved rapidly in opposite directions alternatingly. |
Where the eye mixes seamen and shaken
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. seamen (CVVCVC) and shaken (CCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: seamen vs shaken
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: seamen is /ˈsiːmɛn/ while shaken is /ˈʃeɪk(ə)n/. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44398, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
seamen is recorded at frequency rank #31,339, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsiːmɛn/. shaken is at rank #13,059, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈʃeɪk(ə)n/.
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 44398, this pair ranks #230,924 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of seamen vs shaken
Shared letters: aens. Private to "seamen": m. Private to "shaken": hk.
"seamen" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "shaken" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "seamen" and "shaken" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "seamen" vs "shaken" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "seamen" and "shaken" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "seamen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "shaken" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #230,924 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "seamen" and "shaken" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Seager vs seamen". 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 #230,924 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.