Which to use
“shakes” is a noun and “Slates” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,139
- “shakes” frequency rank
- #46,781
- “Slates” frequency rank
- 58920
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shakes | Slates |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of shake | A surname. |
Letter map: shakes vs Slates
Shared letters muted; letters that set shakes and Slates apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. shakes and Slates follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Part-of-speech tell for shakes / Slates
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: shakes is anoun and Slatesaname. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58920, 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/. Slates is at rank #46,781, tagged as aname.
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 58920, this pair ranks #109,424 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of shakes vs Slates
Shared letters: aes. Private to "shakes": hk. Private to "Slates": lt.
"shakes" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "Slates" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "shakes" for "Slates" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "shakes" or "Slates" show up more?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "shakes" and "Slates".
- Full dictionary entry for "shakes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Slates" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #109,424 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shakes" and "Slates" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sate vs Slates". 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 #109,424 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.