Which to use
“shame” and “shore” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #36,158
- “shame” frequency rank
- #24,389
- “shore” frequency rank
- 60547
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shame | shore |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Honte. | Bord, côte, rive, rivage. |
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.
Visual trap between shame and shore
A purely visual mix-up. shame (\ˈʃeɪm\) and shore (\ʃɔː\) 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 60547, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
shame is recorded at frequency rank #36,158, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈʃeɪm\. shore is at rank #24,389, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃɔː\.
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 60547, this pair ranks #97,061 of 440,172 scored French 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
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "shame" for "shore" ever safe?
Frequency check: "shame" vs "shore" - which ranks higher?
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 #97,061 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shame" and "shore" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shame vs stase". 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 #97,061 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.