Which to use
“sesame” and “shame” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,903
- “sesame” frequency rank
- #2,761
- “shame” frequency rank
- 18664
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sesame | shame |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A tropical Asian plant (Sesamum indicum) bearing small flat seeds used as food and as a source of oil. | 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 sesame and shame
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. sesame runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against shame's 5 (CCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: sesame vs shame
A purely visual mix-up. sesame (/ˈsɛsəmi/) and shame (/ʃeɪm/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18664, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sesame is recorded at frequency rank #15,903, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsɛsəmi/. 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 18664, this pair ranks #443,345 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of sesame vs shame
Shared letters: aems. Private to "sesame": -. Private to "shame": h.
"sesame" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "shame" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sesame" and "shame" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "sesame" or "shame" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "sesame" 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 #443,345 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sesame" and "shame" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sedate vs sesame". 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 #443,345 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.