Which to use
“shutter” and “sitter” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,507
- “shutter” frequency rank
- #23,100
- “sitter” frequency rank
- 38607
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shutter | sitter |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | One who shuts or closes something. | Someone who sits, e.g. for a portrait. |
Where the eye mixes shutter and sitter
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses shutter with sitter
A purely visual mix-up. shutter (/ˈʃʌt.ə/) and sitter (/ˈsɪtə/) 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 38607, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
shutter is recorded at frequency rank #15,507, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈʃʌt.ə/. sitter is at rank #23,100, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsɪtə/.
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 38607, this pair ranks #284,425 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of shutter vs sitter
Shared letters: erst. Private to "shutter": hu. Private to "sitter": i.
"shutter" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC · "sitter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "shutter" for "sitter" ever safe?
Which is more common, "shutter" or "sitter"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "shutter" and "sitter" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "shutter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sitter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #284,425 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shutter" and "sitter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sifted vs sitter". 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 #284,425 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.