Shear vs. Sheer — What's the Difference?
Edited by Tayyaba Rehman — By Fiza Rafique — Updated on October 25, 2023
Shear refers to cutting or breaking, especially of hair, wool, or material, while Sheer denotes something completely transparent, thin, or a steep vertical rise. Both words differ in meaning and usage.
Difference Between Shear and Sheer
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Key Differences
Shear and Sheer, while sounding similar, carry distinct meanings. Shear primarily relates to the act of cutting, particularly in the context of hair, wool, or materials. For example, a hairdresser might shear a client's hair or a farmer might shear wool from sheep. Sheer, on the other hand, often describes transparency, thinness, or the quality of being extremely light in texture or weight.
Moreover, Shear can also reference forces in physics that act parallel to a surface, causing layers or parts to slide past each other. In contrast, Sheer can be employed to depict something that's utterly or completely of a certain quality, as in "sheer joy" or "sheer nonsense."
Shear has industrial connotations as well, being used in construction or engineering contexts to talk about stresses or breaks caused by forces. Meanwhile, Sheer can allude to a steep or vertical aspect, such as a sheer cliff face, highlighting the drastic rise or drop of a terrain.
While both words share phonetic similarities, their definitions and usages remain distinctly apart. To shear is to cut or experience a force, whereas to describe something as sheer is to emphasize its transparency, extremeness, or steepness.
Comparison Chart
Primary Meaning
To cut, especially hair or wool.
Complete transparency or thinness.
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Secondary Meaning
Forces causing parts to slide past each other.
Completely or utterly of a certain quality.
Grammatical Use
Often used as a verb, sometimes as a noun.
Typically an adjective, occasionally an adverb.
Example Context
Industrial, hairdressing, farming.
Describing fabric, emphasizing extremeness, landscapes.
Related Phrases
Shearing sheep, shear forces.
Sheer joy, sheer cliffs.
Compare with Definitions
Shear
To break or cause to break.
Excessive force can shear the bolt.
Sheer
Completely transparent or thin.
The sheer curtain let in a lot of light.
Shear
Forces causing sliding between layers or parts.
Shear stresses can cause deformations in materials.
Sheer
Absolute or utter.
It was sheer luck that we found the lost key.
Shear
To undergo breaking or clipping.
The metal might shear if not supported properly.
Sheer
Directly or straight.
The car went sheer off the road.
Shear
Cut the wool off (a sheep or other animal)
Paul has never sheared a sheep before
Demonstrations of sheep shearing
Sheer
Nothing other than; unmitigated (used for emphasis)
She giggled with sheer delight
It's been sheer hard work
Shear
Break off or cause to break off, owing to a structural strain
The gear sheared and jammed in the rear wheel
The left wing had been almost completely sheared off
Sheer
(especially of a cliff or wall) perpendicular or nearly so
The sheer ice walls
Shear
A strain produced by pressure in the structure of a substance, when its layers are laterally shifted in relation to each other
Aluminium is not very resilient to shear forces
The water from the upper source is emitted at the same speed as the main flow; there is thus no shear
Sheer
(of a fabric) very thin; diaphanous
Sheer white silk chiffon
Shear
To remove (fleece or hair) by cutting or clipping.
Sheer
Perpendicularly
The ridge fell sheer, in steep crags
Shear
To remove the hair or fleece from.
Sheer
Completely; right
She went sheer forward when the door was open
Shear
To cut with or as if with shears
Shearing a hedge.
Sheer
A very fine or diaphanous fabric or article
She ditched her glossy sheers while pregnant
I put up the new curtains and sheers
Shear
To divest or deprive as if by cutting
The prisoners were shorn of their dignity.
Sheer
A sudden deviation from a course, especially by a boat.
Shear
To use a cutting tool such as shears.
Sheer
The upward slope of a ship's lines towards the bow and stern.
Shear
To move or proceed by or as if by cutting
Shear through the wheat.
Sheer
(typically of a boat) swerve or change course quickly
The boat sheered off to beach further up the coast
Shear
(Physics) To become deformed by shear force.
Sheer
To swerve or cause to swerve from a course.
Shear
A pair of scissors.
Sheer
A swerving or deviating course.
Shear
Any of various implements or machines that cut with a scissorlike action.
Sheer
The upward curve or amount of upward curve of the longitudinal lines of a ship's hull as viewed from the side.
Shear
The act, process, or result of shearing, especially when used to indicate a sheep's age
A two-shear ram.
Sheer
The position in which a ship at anchor is maintained in order to keep it clear of the anchor.
Shear
Something cut off by shearing.
Sheer
One that is sheer, such as a curtain.
Shear
Also sheers (shîrz) (used with a sing. or pl. verb) An apparatus used to lift heavy weights, consisting of two or more spars joined at the top and spread at the base, the tackle being suspended from the top.
Sheer
Thin, fine, and translucent
Sheer curtains.
Sheer chiffon.
Shear
See shear force.
Sheer
Completely such, without qualification or exception
Sheer stupidity.
Sheer happiness.
Shear
See shear strain.
Sheer
Free from admixture or adulterants; unmixed
Sheer alcohol.
Shear
See shear stress.
Sheer
Considered or operating apart from anything else
Got the job through sheer persistence.
Shear
To cut, originally with a sword or other bladed weapon, now usually with shears, or as if using shears.
Sheer
Almost perpendicular; steep
Sheer rock cliffs. See Synonyms at steep1.
Shear
To remove the fleece from a sheep etc. by clipping.
Shear the llamas
Sheer
Almost perpendicularly.
Shear
To cut the hair of (a person).
Shear the afro off someone's head
Sheer
Completely; altogether.
Shear
(physics) To deform because of forces pushing in opposite directions.
Sheer
(textiles) Very thin or transparent.
Her light, sheer dress caught everyone’s attention.
Shear
To change in direction or speed.
Sheer
(obsolete) Pure in composition; unmixed; unadulterated.
Shear
(mathematics) To transform by displacing every point in a direction parallel to some given line by a distance proportional to the point’s distance from the line.
Sheer
(by extension) Downright; complete; pure.
I think it is sheer genius to invent such a thing.
This poem is sheer nonsense.
Through technological wizardry and sheer audacity, Google has shown how we can transform the intellectual riches of our libraries....
Shear
To make a vertical cut in coal.
Sheer
Used to emphasize the amount or degree of something.
The army's sheer size made it impossible to resist.
Shear
(Scotland) To reap, as grain.
Sheer
Very steep; almost vertical or perpendicular.
It was a sheer drop of 180 feet.
Shear
(figurative) To deprive of property; to fleece.
Sheer
(archaic) Clean; quite; at once.
Shear
A cutting tool similar to scissors, but often larger.
Sheer
A sheer curtain or fabric.
Shear
(metalworking) A large machine use for cutting sheet metal.
Sheer
(nautical) The curve of the main deck or gunwale from bow to stern.
Shear
The act of shearing, or something removed by shearing.
Sheer
(nautical) An abrupt swerve from the course of a ship.
Shear
(physics) Forces that push in opposite directions.
Sheer
To swerve from a course.
A horse sheers at a bicycle.
Shear
Wind shear, or an instance thereof.
We hit a nasty shear on approach and had to go around.
Sheer
(obsolete) To shear.
Shear
(mathematics) A transformation that displaces every point in a direction parallel to some given line by a distance proportional to the point’s distance from the line.
Sheer
Bright; clear; pure; unmixed.
Thou sheer, immaculate, and silver fountain.
Shear
(geology) The response of a rock to deformation usually by compressive stress, resulting in particular textures.
Sheer
Very thin or transparent; - applied to fabrics; as, sheer muslin.
Shear
To cut, clip, or sever anything from with shears or a like instrument; as, to shear sheep; to shear cloth.
Sheer
Being only what it seems to be; obvious; simple; mere; downright; as, sheer folly; sheer nonsense.
It is not a sheer advantage to have several strings to one's bow.
Shear
To separate or sever with shears or a similar instrument; to cut off; to clip (something) from a surface; as, to shear a fleece.
Before the golden tresses . . . were shorn away.
Sheer
Stright up and down; vertical; prpendicular.
A sheer precipice of a thousand feet.
It was at leastNine roods of sheer ascent.
Shear
To reap, as grain.
Sheer
Clean; quite; at once.
Shear
Fig.: To deprive of property; to fleece.
Sheer
To shear.
Shear
To deviate. See Sheer.
Sheer
To decline or deviate from the line of the proper course; to turn aside; to swerve; as, a ship sheers from her course; a horse sheers at a bicycle.
Shear
To become more or less completely divided, as a body under the action of forces, by the sliding of two contiguous parts relatively to each other in a direction parallel to their plane of contact.
Sheer
The longitudinal upward curvature of the deck, gunwale, and lines of a vessel, as when viewed from the side.
Shear
A pair of shears; - now always used in the plural, but formerly also in the singular. See Shears.
On his head came razor none, nor shear.
Short of the wool, and naked from the shear.
Sheer
A turn or change in a course.
Give the canoe a sheer and get nearer to the shore.
Shear
A shearing; - used in designating the age of sheep.
After the second shearing, he is a two-shear ram; . . . at the expiration of another year, he is a three-shear ram; the name always taking its date from the time of shearing.
Sheer
Shears See Shear.
Shear
An action, resulting from applied forces, which tends to cause two contiguous parts of a body to slide relatively to each other in a direction parallel to their plane of contact; - also called shearing stress, and tangential stress.
Sheer
Turn sharply; change direction abruptly;
The car cut to the left at the intersection
The motorbike veered to the right
Shear
A strain, or change of shape, of an elastic body, consisting of an extension in one direction, an equal compression in a perpendicular direction, with an unchanged magnitude in the third direction.
Sheer
Cause to sheer;
She sheered her car around the obstacle
Shear
(physics) a deformation of an object in which parallel planes remain parallel but are shifted in a direction parallel to themselves;
The shear changed the quadrilateral into a parallelogram
Sheer
Complete and without restriction or qualification; sometimes used informally as intensifiers;
Absolute freedom
An absolute dimwit
A downright lie
Out-and-out mayhem
An out-and-out lie
A rank outsider
Many right-down vices
Got the job through sheer persistence
Sheer stupidity
Shear
(usually plural) large scissors with strong blades
Sheer
Not mixed with extraneous elements;
Plain water
Sheer wine
Not an unmixed blessing
Shear
A large edge tool that cuts sheet metal by passing a blade through it
Sheer
Very steep; having a prominent and almost vertical front;
A bluff headland
Where the bold chalk cliffs of England rise
A sheer descent of rock
Shear
Cut with shears;
Shear hedges
Sheer
So thin as to transmit light;
A hat with a diaphanous veil
Filmy wings of a moth
Gauzy clouds of dandelion down
Gossamer cobwebs
Sheer silk stockings
Transparent chiffon
Vaporous silks
Shear
Shear the wool from;
Shear sheep
Sheer
Straight up or down without a break
Shear
Cut or cut through with shears
Sheer
Directly;
He fell sheer into the water
Shear
To cut off or clip.
The farmer will shear the sheep this afternoon.
Sheer
A steep rise or descent.
The sheer drop of the cliff was intimidating.
Shear
A machine or tool for cutting.
Use the shear to clip the metal sheet.
Sheer
Fine or delicate in quality.
The fabric was sheer and smooth to touch.
Common Curiosities
What does Sheer typically describe in terms of fabric?
Sheer often describes fabric that is completely transparent or thin.
How might you use Sheer to describe extremeness?
You can say "sheer joy" to indicate utter or complete joy.
What might you shear in a farm context?
In a farm context, you might shear wool from sheep.
Can Shear relate to physics and engineering?
Yes, Shear can refer to forces causing parts to slide past each other.
Can Sheer be used to describe direction?
Yes, Sheer can indicate a direct or straight direction.
Which word refers to cutting or clipping?
Shear refers to cutting or clipping.
Which word is often used as a verb?
Shear is often used as a verb.
What does a sheer cliff mean?
A sheer cliff indicates a steep or vertical rise.
Is there a machine associated with Shear?
Yes, a tool or machine for cutting can be called a shear.
Which word might be used in hairdressing?
Shear might be used in hairdressing, especially for cutting hair.
Can Sheer indicate a lack of obstruction?
Yes, Sheer can indicate something direct or without obstruction.
Is Sheer ever used to describe quality?
Yes, Sheer can describe something fine or delicate in quality.
How do the words differ grammatically?
Shear is often a verb or noun, while Sheer is usually an adjective.
Is Shear related to breaking?
Yes, Shear can relate to breaking or causing to break.
Does Sheer always mean transparent?
No, while Sheer can mean transparent, it can also mean utter, steep, or direct.
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Written by
Fiza RafiqueFiza Rafique is a skilled content writer at AskDifference.com, where she meticulously refines and enhances written pieces. Drawing from her vast editorial expertise, Fiza ensures clarity, accuracy, and precision in every article. Passionate about language, she continually seeks to elevate the quality of content for readers worldwide.
Edited by
Tayyaba RehmanTayyaba Rehman is a distinguished writer, currently serving as a primary contributor to askdifference.com. As a researcher in semantics and etymology, Tayyaba's passion for the complexity of languages and their distinctions has found a perfect home on the platform. Tayyaba delves into the intricacies of language, distinguishing between commonly confused words and phrases, thereby providing clarity for readers worldwide.
