Which to use
“shaves” and “stares” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #39,085
- “shaves” frequency rank
- #19,214
- “stares” frequency rank
- 58299
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shaves | stares |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of shave | plural of stare |
Where the eye mixes shaves and stares
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. shaves and stares follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between shaves and stares
A purely visual mix-up. shaves (/ʃeɪvz/) and stares (/ˈstɛəz/) 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 58299, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
shaves is recorded at frequency rank #39,085, classified as anoun, pronounced /ʃeɪvz/. stares is at rank #19,214, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈstɛəz/.
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 58299, this pair ranks #113,500 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of shaves vs stares
Shared letters: aes. Private to "shaves": hv. Private to "stares": rt.
"shaves" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "stares" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "shaves" and "stares" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "shaves" vs "stares" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "shaves" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "stares" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #113,500 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shaves" and "stares" 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 #113,500 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.