Which to use
“show” is a noun and “shut” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,852
- “show” frequency rank
- #41,005
- “shut” frequency rank
- 43857
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | show | shut |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Spectacle. | Refermer, fermer ce qui était ouvert, fermer. |
Letter map: show vs shut
Shared letters muted; letters that set show and shut apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Part-of-speech tell for show / shut
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: show 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 43857, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
show is recorded at frequency rank #2,852, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃo\. 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 43857, this pair ranks #214,850 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of show vs shut
Shared letters: hs. Private to "show": ow. Private to "shut": tu.
"show" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "shut" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "show" and "shut" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "show" or "shut"?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "show" and "shut".
- Full dictionary entry for "show" 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 #214,850 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "show" 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 #214,850 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.