Which to use
“shoulder” is a noun and “shouldered” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,025
- “shoulder” frequency rank
- #35,515
- “shouldered” frequency rank
- 38540
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shoulder | shouldered |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The part of an animal's body between the base of the neck and arm socket. | Furnished with a shoulder-shaped joint or protrusion. |
Letter map: shoulder vs shouldered
Shared letters muted; letters that set shoulder and shouldered apart highlighted. Shared run: 8. shoulder runs 8 letters (CCVVCCVC) against shouldered's 10 (CCVVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Grammar separator: shoulder vs shouldered
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: shoulder is anoun and shoulderedanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “shoulder” sits inside “shouldered”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38540, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
shoulder is recorded at frequency rank #3,025, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈʃəʊldə/. shouldered is at rank #35,515, tagged as anadj.
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 38540, this pair ranks #285,015 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of shoulder vs shouldered
Shared letters: dehlorsu. Private to "shoulder": -. Private to "shouldered": -.
"shoulder" · 8 letters · shape CCVVCCVC · "shouldered" · 10 letters · shape CCVVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- shoulder ← hsoulder · shhoulder · sholuder · shoudler · shouldder · shoulderr · shouldre · shouledr
- shouldered ← hsouldered · shhouldered · sholudered · shoudlered · shoulddered · shouldeerd · shoulderde · shoulderedd
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "shoulder" and "shouldered" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "shoulder" or "shouldered" show up more?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "shoulder" and "shouldered".
- Full dictionary entry for "shoulder" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "shouldered" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #285,015 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shoulder" and "shouldered" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shouldered vs shoulders". 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 #285,015 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.