Which to use
“shatter” and “shattered” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #21,933
- “shatter” frequency rank
- #10,446
- “shattered” frequency rank
- 32379
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shatter | shattered |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To violently break something into pieces. | simple past and past participle of shatter |
Where the eye mixes shatter and shattered
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: shatter vs shattered
A purely visual mix-up. shatter (/ˈʃæt.ə(ɹ)/) and shattered (/ˈʃætɚd/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “shatter” sits inside “shattered”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32379, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
shatter is recorded at frequency rank #21,933, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈʃæt.ə(ɹ)/. shattered is at rank #10,446, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈʃætɚd/.
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 32379, this pair ranks #338,275 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of shatter vs shattered
Shared letters: aehrst. Private to "shatter": -. Private to "shattered": d.
"shatter" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC · "shattered" · 9 letters · shape CCVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "shatter" and "shattered" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "shatter" vs "shattered" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "shatter" and "shattered" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "shatter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "shattered" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #338,275 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shatter" and "shattered" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shaper vs shatter". 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 #338,275 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.