Which to use
“shouldered” is an adjective and “shoulders” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #35,515
- “shouldered” frequency rank
- #5,362
- “shoulders” frequency rank
- 40877
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shouldered | shoulders |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Furnished with a shoulder-shaped joint or protrusion. | plural of shoulder |
Letter map: shouldered vs shoulders
Shared letters muted; letters that set shouldered and shoulders apart highlighted. Shared run: 8. shouldered runs 10 letters (CCVVCCVCVC) against shoulders's 9 (CCVVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Grammar separator: shouldered vs shoulders
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: shouldered is anadjective and shouldersanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40877, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
shouldered is recorded at frequency rank #35,515, classified as anadj. shoulders is at rank #5,362, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈʃoʊldɚz/.
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 40877, this pair ranks #263,615 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of shouldered vs shoulders
Shared letters: dehlorsu. Private to "shouldered": -. Private to "shoulders": -.
"shouldered" · 10 letters · shape CCVVCCVCVC · "shoulders" · 9 letters · shape CCVVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- shouldered ← hsouldered · shhouldered · sholudered · shoudlered · shoulddered · shouldeerd · shoulderde · shoulderedd
- shoulders ← hsoulders · shhoulders · sholuders · shoudlers · shouldders · shoulderrs · shoulderss · shouldesr
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "shouldered" and "shoulders" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "shouldered" or "shoulders"?
After this comparison
You've compared "shouldered" and "shoulders". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "shouldered" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "shoulders" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #263,615 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shouldered" and "shoulders" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shoulder vs shouldered". 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 #263,615 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.