Which to use
“shin” is a noun and “shut” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #21,166
- “shin” frequency rank
- #41,005
- “shut” frequency rank
- 62171
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shin | shut |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Autre orthographe de chine (ש), vingt-et-unième lettre de l’alphabet hébreu. | Refermer, fermer ce qui était ouvert, fermer. |
Letter map: shin vs shut
Shared letters muted; letters that set shin and shut apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. shin and shut follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Grammar separator: shin vs shut
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: shin is anoun and shutaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62171, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
shin is recorded at frequency rank #21,166, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃin\. shut is at rank #41,005, tagged as averb.
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 62171, this pair ranks #88,495 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of shin vs shut
Shared letters: hs. Private to "shin": in. Private to "shut": tu.
"shin" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "shut" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "shin" for "shut" ever safe?
Frequency check: "shin" vs "shut" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
You've compared "shin" and "shut". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "shin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "shut" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #88,495 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shin" and "shut" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shut vs suu". 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 #88,495 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.