# shale vs stole

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### shale
*noun · IPA /ʃeɪl/ · frequency rank #11,460*
A shell, scale or husk; a cod or pod.

### stole
*verb · IPA /stəʊl/ · frequency rank #5,087*
simple past of steal

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