sharevsspaceWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#642
“share” frequency rank
#598
“space” frequency rank
1240
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature share space
Definition A portion of something, especially a portion given or allotted to someone. Unlimited or generalized extent, physical or otherwise.

Where the eye mixes share and space

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
share
5 ch
space

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. share (/ʃɛə/) and space (/speɪs/) 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 1240, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

share is recorded at frequency rank #642, classified as anoun, pronounced /ʃɛə/. space is at rank #598, tagged as anoun, pronounced /speɪs/.

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 1240, this pair ranks #527,808 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of share vs space

Shared letters: aes. Private to "share": hr. Private to "space": cp.

"share" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "space" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sharehsare · sahre · shaer · sharre · shhare · shrae · sshare
  • spacepsace · sapce · spacce · spaec · spcae · sppace · sspace

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "share" and "space" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ʃɛə/ versus /speɪs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "share" or "space"?
"space" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #598 in our English list, against #642 for "share". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list