shotsvsshutWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: shots is a noun, shut is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“shots” is a noun and “shut” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#32,191
“shots” frequency rank
#41,005
“shut” frequency rank
73196
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature shots shut
Definition Pluriel de shot. Refermer, fermer ce qui était ouvert, fermer.

Letter map: shots vs shut

Shared letters muted; letters that set shots and shut apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. shots runs 5 letters (CCVCC) against shut's 4 (CCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
shots
4 ch
shut

Grammar separator: shots vs shut

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: shots is anoun and shutaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73196, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

shots is recorded at frequency rank #32,191, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃɔt\. 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 73196, this pair ranks #41,294 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of shots vs shut

Shared letters: hst. Private to "shots": o. Private to "shut": u.

"shots" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "shut" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • shots ← hsots · shhots · shost · shotss · shotts · shtos · sohts · sshots
  • shut ← hsut · shhut · shtu · shutt · sshut · suht

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "shots" and "shut" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "shots" is a noun and "shut" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "shots" or "shut" show up more?
"shots" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,191 in our French list, against #41,005 for "shut". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "shots" and "shut". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "shots" 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 #41,294 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "shots" 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 #41,294 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list