Which to use
“shard” is a noun and “spared” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #29,083
- “shard” frequency rank
- #12,330
- “spared” frequency rank
- 41413
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shard | spared |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A piece of broken glass or pottery, especially one found in an archaeological dig. | simple past and past participle of spare |
Where the eye mixes shard and spared
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. shard runs 5 letters (CCVCC) against spared's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses shard with spared
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: shard is /ʃaːd/ while spared is /ˈspɛɹd/. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41413, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
shard is recorded at frequency rank #29,083, classified as anoun, pronounced /ʃaːd/. spared is at rank #12,330, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈspɛɹd/.
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 41413, this pair ranks #258,666 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of shard vs spared
Shared letters: adrs. Private to "shard": h. Private to "spared": ep.
"shard" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "spared" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "shard" for "spared" ever safe?
Which is more common, "shard" or "spared"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "shard" and "spared" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "shard" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "spared" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #258,666 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shard" and "spared" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Shana vs shard". 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 #258,666 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.