Which to use
“shield” and “shields” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #21,468
- “shield” frequency rank
- #47,609
- “shields” frequency rank
- 69077
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shield | shields |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Enseigne. | Pluriel de shield. |
Where the eye mixes shield and shields
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses shield with shields
A purely visual mix-up. shield (\ʃiːld\) and shields (\ʃiːldz\) 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) - “shield” sits inside “shields”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69077, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
shield is recorded at frequency rank #21,468, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃiːld\. shields is at rank #47,609, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃiːldz\.
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 69077, this pair ranks #56,567 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of shield vs shields
Shared letters: dehils. Private to "shield": -. Private to "shields": -.
"shield" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC · "shields" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "shield" and "shields" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "shield" vs "shields" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "shield" and "shields" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "shield" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "shields" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #56,567 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shield" and "shields" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shield vs sied". 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 #56,567 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.