shotsvsslothsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#2,367
“shots” frequency rank
#43,375
“sloths” frequency rank
45742
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature shots sloths
Definition plural of shot plural of sloth

Where the eye mixes shots and sloths

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. shots runs 5 letters (CCVCC) against sloths's 6 (CCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
shots
6 ch
sloths

Visual trap between shots and sloths

A purely visual mix-up. shots (/ʃɑts/) and sloths (/slɑθs/) 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 45742, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

shots is recorded at frequency rank #2,367, classified as anoun, pronounced /ʃɑts/. sloths is at rank #43,375, tagged as anoun, pronounced /slɑθs/.

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 45742, this pair ranks #218,365 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of shots vs sloths

Shared letters: host. Private to "shots": -. Private to "sloths": l.

"shots" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "sloths" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • shots ← hsots · shhots · shost · shotss · shotts · shtos · sohts · sshots
  • sloths ← lsoths · slloths · slohts · slothhs · slothss · slotsh · slotths · sltohs

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "shots" and "sloths" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ʃɑts/ versus /slɑθs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "shots" or "sloths"?
"shots" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,367 in our English list, against #43,375 for "sloths". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "shots" and "sloths" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "shots" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sloths" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #218,365 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "shots" and "sloths" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Slates vs sloths". 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 #218,365 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list