# shaka vs ska

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### 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.

### ska
*noun · IPA /skɑː/ · frequency rank #27,287*
A style of Jamaican dance music originating in the late 1950s, combining elements of Caribbean calypso and mento with American jazz and rhythm and blues; it was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae.

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