Which to use
“shallow” is an adjective and “shallows” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,733
- “shallow” frequency rank
- #45,081
- “shallows” frequency rank
- 51814
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shallow | shallows |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having little depth; significantly less deep than wide. | An area in a large body of water with many shallow areas. |
Letter map: shallow vs shallows
Shared letters muted; letters that set shallow and shallows apart highlighted. Shared run: 7.
Grammar separator: shallow vs shallows
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: shallow is anadjective and shallowsanoun. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “shallow” sits inside “shallows”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51814, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
shallow is recorded at frequency rank #6,733, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈʃæl.oʊ/. shallows is at rank #45,081, tagged as anoun.
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 51814, this pair ranks #162,257 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of shallow vs shallows
Shared letters: ahlosw. Private to "shallow": -. Private to "shallows": -.
"shallow" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC · "shallows" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "shallow" and "shallows" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "shallow" or "shallows" show up more?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "shallow" and "shallows".
- Full dictionary entry for "shallow" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "shallows" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #162,257 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shallow" and "shallows" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shallows vs swallow". 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 #162,257 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.