shortcoming vs shortcomings

Which to use

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

#49,046
“shortcoming” frequency rank: #16,127
“shortcomings” frequency rank: 65173
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	shortcoming	shortcomings
Definition	A deficiency or falling short; failure to attain a goal or ideal.	plural of shortcoming

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set shortcoming and shortcomings apart are highlighted. They share 11 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

11 ch

shortcoming

12 ch

shortcomings

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

shortcoming and shortcomings are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “shortcoming” sits inside “shortcomings”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65173, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

shortcoming is recorded at frequency rank #49,046, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈʃɔːtˌkʌmɪŋ/. shortcomings is at rank #16,127, tagged as anoun.

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 65173, this pair ranks #74,078 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of shortcoming vs shortcomings

Shared letters: cghimnorst. Private to "shortcoming": -. Private to "shortcomings": -.

"shortcoming" · 11 letters · shape CCVCCCVCVCC · "shortcomings" · 12 letters · shape CCVCCCVCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

shortcoming ← hsortcoming · shhortcoming · shorctoming · shorrtcoming · shortccoming · shortcmoing · shortcoimng · shortcomign
shortcomings ← hsortcomings · shhortcomings · shorctomings · shorrtcomings · shortccomings · shortcmoings · shortcoimngs · shortcomigns

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "shortcoming" and "shortcomings" be used interchangeably?

No. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “shortcoming” sits inside “shortcomings”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.

Which is more common, "shortcoming" or "shortcomings"?

"shortcomings" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,127 in our English list, against #49,046 for "shortcoming". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.