Which to use
“sear” is an adjective and “shard” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #41,374
- “sear” frequency rank
- #29,083
- “shard” frequency rank
- 70457
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sear | shard |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Dry; withered, especially of vegetation. | A piece of broken glass or pottery, especially one found in an archaeological dig. |
Where the eye mixes sear and shard
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between sear and shard
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sear is /sɪɚ/ while shard is /ʃaːd/. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70457, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sear is recorded at frequency rank #41,374, classified as anadj, pronounced /sɪɚ/. shard is at rank #29,083, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ʃaːd/.
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 70457, this pair ranks #50,508 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of sear vs shard
Shared letters: ars. Private to "sear": e. Private to "shard": dh.
"sear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "shard" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "sear" and "shard" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "sear" or "shard" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "sear" and "shard" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "sear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "shard" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #50,508 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sear" and "shard" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Seager vs sear". 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 #50,508 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.