shakervssharedWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: shaker is a noun, shared is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“shaker” is a noun and “shared” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#21,654
“shaker” frequency rank
#2,128
“shared” frequency rank
23782
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature shaker shared
Definition A person or thing that shakes, or by means of which something is shaken. Used by multiple entities or for multiple purposes or in multiple ways.

Where the eye mixes shaker and shared

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
shaker
6 ch
shared

Why the eye confuses shaker with shared

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: shaker is /ˈʃeɪkɚ/ while shared is /ʃɛːd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23782, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

shaker is recorded at frequency rank #21,654, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈʃeɪkɚ/. shared is at rank #2,128, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ʃɛːd/.

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 23782, this pair ranks #406,817 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of shaker vs shared

Shared letters: aehrs. Private to "shaker": k. Private to "shared": d.

"shaker" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "shared" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • shakerhsaker · sahker · shaekr · shakerr · shakker · shakre · shhaker · shkaer
  • sharedhsared · sahred · shaerd · sharde · sharedd · sharred · shhared · shraed

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "shaker" and "shared" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "shaker" is a noun and "shared" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "shaker" vs "shared" - which ranks higher?
"shared" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,128 in our English list, against #21,654 for "shaker". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "shaker" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "shared" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #406,817 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "shaker" and "shared" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Seager vs shaker". 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 #406,817 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list