Which to use
“ship” and “skin” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,271
- “ship” frequency rank
- #18,716
- “skin” frequency rank
- 37987
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ship | skin |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | navio | pele |
Where the eye mixes ship and skin
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between ship and skin
A purely visual mix-up. ship (shĭp) and skin (/ˈskin/) 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 37987, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ship is recorded at frequency rank #19,271, classified as anoun, pronounced shĭp. skin is at rank #18,716, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈskin/.
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 37987, this pair ranks #28,546 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ship vs skin
Shared letters: is. Private to "ship": hp. Private to "skin": kn.
"ship" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "skin" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ship" for "skin" ever safe?
Frequency check: "ship" vs "skin" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "ship" and "skin" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "ship" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "skin" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #28,546 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ship" and "skin" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ship vs soap". 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 #28,546 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.