Which to use
“shift” and “shire” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #25,488
- “shift” frequency rank
- #48,114
- “shire” frequency rank
- 73602
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shift | shire |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | turno | condado |
Where the eye mixes shift and shire
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between shift and shire
A purely visual mix-up. shift (/ʃɪft/) and shire (/ʃaɪə(ɹ)/) 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 73602, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
shift is recorded at frequency rank #25,488, classified as anoun, pronounced /ʃɪft/. shire is at rank #48,114, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ʃaɪə(ɹ)/.
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 73602, this pair ranks #2,733 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of shift vs shire
Shared letters: his. Private to "shift": ft. Private to "shire": er.
"shift" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "shire" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "shift" and "shire" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "shift" or "shire"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "shift" and "shire" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "shift" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "shire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #2,733 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shift" and "shire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shire vs sire". 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 #2,733 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.