# shad vs shaka

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### shad
*noun · IPA /ʃæd/ · frequency rank #35,509*
Any one of several species of food fishes that make up the genus Alosa in the family Clupeidae, to which the herrings also belong; river herring.

### shaka
*noun · IPA /ˈʃɑːkə/ · frequency rank #45,650*
A greeting gesture in which the thumb and little finger are extended while curling the three middle fingers in a semi-fist, used to express a variety of positive meanings including all right, hello and goodbye.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shad-vs-shaka