Which to use
“show” and “shown” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #199
- “show” frequency rank
- #1,354
- “shown” frequency rank
- 1553
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | show | shown |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To display, to have somebody see (something). | past participle of show |
Where the eye mixes show and shown
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. show (/ʃəʊ/) and shown (/ʃəʊn/) 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 extra letter(s) - “show” sits inside “shown”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1553, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
show is recorded at frequency rank #199, classified as averb, pronounced /ʃəʊ/. shown is at rank #1,354, tagged as averb, pronounced /ʃəʊn/.
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 1553, this pair ranks #527,192 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of show vs shown
Shared letters: hosw. Private to "show": -. Private to "shown": n.
"show" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "shown" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC