Which to use
“shakes” is a noun and “shaky” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,139
- “shakes” frequency rank
- #16,125
- “shaky” frequency rank
- 28264
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shakes | shaky |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of shake | Shaking or trembling. |
Where the eye mixes shakes and shaky
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. shakes runs 6 letters (CCVCVC) against shaky's 5 (CCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between shakes and shaky
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: shakes is /ʃeɪks/ while shaky is /ˈʃeɪki/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28264, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
shakes is recorded at frequency rank #12,139, classified as anoun, pronounced /ʃeɪks/. shaky is at rank #16,125, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈʃeɪki/.
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 28264, this pair ranks #372,419 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of shakes vs shaky
Shared letters: ahks. Private to "shakes": e. Private to "shaky": y.
"shakes" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "shaky" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "shakes" and "shaky" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "shakes" or "shaky" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "shakes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "shaky" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #372,419 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shakes" and "shaky" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shaky vs Shana". 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 #372,419 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.