Which to use
“ships” and “shop” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,762
- “ships” frequency rank
- #1,408
- “shop” frequency rank
- 4170
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ships | shop |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of ship | An establishment that sells goods or services to the public; originally only a physical location, but now a virtual establishment as well. |
Where the eye mixes ships and shop
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses ships with shop
A purely visual mix-up. ships (/ʃɪps/) and shop (/ʃɒp/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4170, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ships is recorded at frequency rank #2,762, classified as anoun, pronounced /ʃɪps/. shop is at rank #1,408, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ʃɒp/.
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 4170, this pair ranks #519,778 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of ships vs shop
Shared letters: hps. Private to "ships": i. Private to "shop": o.
"ships" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "shop" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "ships" and "shop" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "ships" or "shop"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "ships" and "shop" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "ships" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "shop" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #519,778 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ships" and "shop" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ships vs SIDS". 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 #519,778 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.