Which to use
“shove” is a verb and “shoves” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,965
- “shove” frequency rank
- #43,915
- “shoves” frequency rank
- 55880
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shove | shoves |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To push, especially roughly or with force. | plural of shove |
Where the eye mixes shove and shoves
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. shove runs 5 letters (CCVCV) against shoves's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: shove vs shoves
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: shove is /ʃʌv/ while shoves is /ʃʌvz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “shove” sits inside “shoves”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55880, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
shove is recorded at frequency rank #11,965, classified as averb, pronounced /ʃʌv/. shoves is at rank #43,915, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ʃʌvz/.
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 55880, this pair ranks #130,253 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of shove vs shoves
Shared letters: ehosv. Private to "shove": -. Private to "shoves": -.
"shove" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "shoves" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "shove" and "shoves" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "shove" or "shoves"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "shove" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "shoves" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #130,253 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shove" and "shoves" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shoves vs stover". 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 #130,253 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.