Which to use
“seared” is an adjective and “shamed” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #33,840
- “seared” frequency rank
- #22,215
- “shamed” frequency rank
- 56055
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | seared | shamed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | blackened by heat; scorched; burned | simple past and past participle of shame |
Letter map: seared vs shamed
Shared letters muted; letters that set seared and shamed apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. seared (CVVCVC) and shamed (CCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Grammar separator: seared vs shamed
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: seared is anadjective and shamedaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56055, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
seared is recorded at frequency rank #33,840, classified as anadj. shamed is at rank #22,215, tagged as averb, pronounced /ʃeɪmd/.
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 56055, this pair ranks #129,068 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of seared vs shamed
Shared letters: ades. Private to "seared": r. Private to "shamed": hm.
"seared" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "shamed" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "seared" for "shamed" ever safe?
Frequency check: "seared" vs "shamed" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
You've compared "seared" and "shamed". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "seared" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "shamed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #129,068 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "seared" and "shamed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Seager vs seared". 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 #129,068 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.