confuse vs shorten

confuse

verb
  • To mix thoroughly; to confound; to disorder. 

  • to puzzle, perplex, baffle, bewilder (somebody); to afflict by being complicated, contradictory, or otherwise difficult to understand 

  • To mix up, muddle up (one thing with another); to mistake (one thing for another). 

  • To be confused. 

shorten

verb
  • To make deficient (as to); to deprive (of). 

  • To reduce or diminish in amount, quantity, or extent; to lessen. 

  • To take in the slack of (a rope). 

  • To reduce (sail) by taking it in. 

  • To become shorter. 

  • To make shorter; to abbreviate. 

  • To make short or friable, as pastry, with butter, lard, etc. 

How often have the words confuse and shorten occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )