shamevsshoreWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“shame” and “shore” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#47,411
“shame” frequency rank
#28,160
“shore” frequency rank
75571
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature shame shore
Definition Vergüenza. Costa, ribera.

Where the eye mixes shame and shore

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. shame and shore follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
shame
5 ch
shore

Visual trap between shame and shore

A purely visual mix-up. shame (/ʃeɪm/) and shore (/ʃɔ:r/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75571, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

shame is recorded at frequency rank #47,411, classified as anoun, pronounced /ʃeɪm/. shore is at rank #28,160, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ʃɔ:r/.

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 75571, this pair ranks #19,280 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of shame vs shore

Shared letters: ehs. Private to "shame": am. Private to "shore": or.

"shame" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "shore" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • shame ← hsame · sahme · shaem · shamme · shhame · shmae · sshame
  • shore ← hsore · shhore · shoer · shorre · shroe · sohre · sshore

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "shame" for "shore" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ʃeɪm/ versus /ʃɔ:r/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "shame" vs "shore" - which ranks higher?
"shore" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,160 in our Spanish list, against #47,411 for "shame". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "shame" and "shore" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "shame" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "shore" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #19,280 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "shame" and "shore" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shall vs shame". 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 #19,280 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list