shutvsstTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#41,005
“shut” frequency rank
#1,190
“st” frequency rank
42195
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature shut st
Definition Refermer, fermer ce qui était ouvert, fermer. Symbole de la stère.

Letter map: shut vs st

Shared letters muted; letters that set shut and st apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
shut
2 ch
st

Part-of-speech tell for shut / st

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: shut is averb and stasymbol. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42195, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

shut is recorded at frequency rank #41,005, classified as averb. st is at rank #1,190, tagged as asymbol.

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 42195, this pair ranks #227,480 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of shut vs st

Shared letters: st. Private to "shut": hu. Private to "st": -.

"shut" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "st" · 2 letters · shape CC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • shuthsut · shhut · shtu · shutt · sshut · suht

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "shut" and "st" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "shut" is a verb and "st" a symbol, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "shut" or "st"?
"st" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,190 in our French list, against #41,005 for "shut". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pair "shut" vs "st" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "shut" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "st" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #227,480 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "shut" and "st" 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 #227,480 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