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Share or shear?

share is a noun meaning “A portion of something, especially a portion given or allotted to someone”; shear is a verb meaning “To remove the fleece from (a sheep, llama, etc.) by clipping”. Use share as a noun and shear as a verb (shear is also a noun: “A cutting tool similar to scissors, but often larger”). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) share is about 63 times as common as shear.

shareorshear

What is the difference between share and shear?

shareshear
Part of speechnoun, verbverb, noun
Meaning

A portion of something, especially a portion given or allotted to someone

A financial instrument that shows that one owns a part of a company that provides the benefit of limited liability

To give part of what one has to somebody else to use or consume

To remove the fleece from (a sheep, llama, etc.) by clipping

To cut the hair of (a person)

A cutting tool similar to scissors, but often larger

ExampleEach of the robbers took a share of the lootshear the llamas
Formssharesshears, shearing, sheared, shore, shorn
Pronunciation/ʃɛə/ /ʃɛː/ /ʃɛɚ//ʃɪə/ /ʃɪː/ /ʃɪjə/
In writing158 times per million words2.5 times per million words

Sources: share and shear in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Every current meaning of share and shear

share

  1. 1

    noun A portion of something, especially a portion given or allotted to someone

    Each of the robbers took a share of the loot

  2. 2

    verb To give part of what one has to somebody else to use or consume

  3. 3

    noun The cutting blade of an agricultural machine like a plough, a cultivator or a seeding-machine

  4. 4

    noun A financial instrument that shows that one owns a part of a company that provides the benefit of limited liability

  5. 5

    verb To have or use in common

    to share a shelter with another

  6. 6

    noun A configuration enabling a resource to be shared over a network

    Upload media from the browser or directly to the file share

  7. 7

    verb To divide and distribute

  8. 8

    noun The action of sharing something with other people via social media

shear

  1. 1

    verb To remove the fleece from (a sheep, llama, etc.) by clipping

    shear the llamas

  2. 2

    noun A cutting tool similar to scissors, but often larger

  3. 3

    verb To cut the hair of (a person)

    shear the afro off someone's head

  4. 4

    noun A large machine use for cutting sheet metal

  5. 5

    verb To cut, originally with a sword or other bladed weapon, now usually with shears, or as if using shears

  6. 6

    noun The act of shearing, or something removed by shearing

  7. 7

    verb To deform because of forces pushing in opposite directions

  8. 8

    noun Forces that push in opposite directions

Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.

Which is more common, share or shear?

share appears 158 times per million words; shear 2.5 times per million words.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

The words