shamedvssoaredWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“shamed” and “soared” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#22,215
“shamed” frequency rank
#26,967
“soared” frequency rank
49182
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature shamed soared
Definition simple past and past participle of shame simple past and past participle of soar

Where the eye mixes shamed and soared

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. shamed (CCVCVC) and soared (CVVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
shamed
6 ch
soared

Visual trap between shamed and soared

A purely visual mix-up. shamed (/ʃeɪmd/) and soared (/sɔːd/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49182, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

shamed is recorded at frequency rank #22,215, classified as averb, pronounced /ʃeɪmd/. soared is at rank #26,967, tagged as averb, pronounced /sɔːd/.

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 49182, this pair ranks #186,005 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of shamed vs soared

Shared letters: ades. Private to "shamed": hm. Private to "soared": or.

"shamed" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "soared" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • shamed ← hsamed · sahmed · shaemd · shamde · shamedd · shammed · shhamed · shmaed
  • soared ← osared · saored · soaerd · soarde · soaredd · soarred · soraed · ssoared

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "shamed" for "soared" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ʃeɪmd/ versus /sɔːd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "shamed" vs "soared" - which ranks higher?
"shamed" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,215 in our English list, against #26,967 for "soared". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "shamed" and "soared" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "shamed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "soared" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #186,005 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "shamed" and "soared" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "soared vs sorrel". 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 #186,005 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