shakevsshakerWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: shake is a verb, shaker is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“shake” is a verb and “shaker” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,775
“shake” frequency rank
#41,537
“shaker” frequency rank
66312
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature shake shaker
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de shaker. Bouteille, généralement métallique, munie d’un large couvercle amovible pour mélanger intimement les ingrédients composant un cocktail.

Where the eye mixes shake and shaker

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
shake
6 ch
shaker

Why the eye confuses shake with shaker

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: shake is \ʃɛk\ while shaker is \ʃɛ.kœʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “shake” sits inside “shaker”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66312, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

shake is recorded at frequency rank #24,775, classified as averb, pronounced \ʃɛk\. shaker is at rank #41,537, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃɛ.kœʁ\.

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 66312, this pair ranks #68,376 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of shake vs shaker

Shared letters: aehks. Private to "shake": -. Private to "shaker": r.

"shake" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "shaker" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • shakehsake · sahke · shaek · shakke · shhake · shkae · sshake
  • shakerhsaker · sahker · shaekr · shakerr · shakker · shakre · shhaker · shkaer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "shake" for "shaker" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "shake" is a verb and "shaker" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "shake" vs "shaker" - which ranks higher?
"shake" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,775 in our French list, against #41,537 for "shaker". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "shake" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "shaker" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #68,376 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "shake" and "shaker" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shaker vs shower". 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 #68,376 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list