Which to use
“shore” and “shows” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #24,389
- “shore” frequency rank
- #17,271
- “shows” frequency rank
- 41660
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shore | shows |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Bord, côte, rive, rivage. | Pluriel de show. |
Where the eye mixes shore and shows
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between shore and shows
A purely visual mix-up. shore (\ʃɔː\) and shows (\ʃo\) 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 41660, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
shore is recorded at frequency rank #24,389, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃɔː\. shows is at rank #17,271, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʃo\.
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 41660, this pair ranks #231,434 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of shore vs shows
Shared letters: hos. Private to "shore": er. Private to "shows": w.
"shore" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "shows" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "shore" and "shows" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "shore" or "shows"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "shore" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "shows" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #231,434 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shore" and "shows" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shore 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 #231,434 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.