Which to use
“short” is a noun and “shut” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,499
- “short” frequency rank
- #41,005
- “shut” frequency rank
- 48504
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | short | shut |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Culotte courte, ne couvrant que le haut des cuisses. | Refermer, fermer ce qui était ouvert, fermer. |
Letter map: short vs shut
Shared letters muted; letters that set short and shut apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.
Role in the sentence - short and shut
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: short is anoun and shutaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48504, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
short is recorded at frequency rank #7,499, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃɔʁt\. 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 48504, this pair ranks #178,379 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of short vs shut
Shared letters: hst. Private to "short": or. Private to "shut": u.
"short" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "shut" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "short" for "shut" ever safe?
Which is more common, "short" or "shut"?
Useful next steps
Pair "short" vs "shut" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "short" 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 #178,379 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "short" 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 #178,379 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.