Which to use
“shaven” is an adjective and “shaves” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #33,843
- “shaven” frequency rank
- #39,085
- “shaves” frequency rank
- 72928
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shaven | shaves |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having been shaved. | plural of shave |
Where the eye mixes shaven and shaves
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. shaven and shaves follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses shaven with shaves
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: shaven is /ˈʃeɪ.vən/ while shaves is /ʃeɪvz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - n in “shaven” becomes s in “shaves”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72928, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
shaven is recorded at frequency rank #33,843, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈʃeɪ.vən/. shaves is at rank #39,085, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ʃeɪvz/.
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 72928, this pair ranks #41,353 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of shaven vs shaves
Shared letters: aehsv. Private to "shaven": n. Private to "shaves": -.
"shaven" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "shaves" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "shaven" for "shaves" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "shaven" or "shaves" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "shaven" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "shaves" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #41,353 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shaven" and "shaves" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shaper vs shaves". 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 #41,353 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.