The term "shovel" is also applied to larger excavating machines, such as power shovels, which are designed for the same purpose—lifting and moving material, see Loader (equipment).
Hand shovels have been adapted for many different tasks and environments. They can be optimized for a single task or designed as cross-over or compromise tools to perform multiple tasks, for example:
* A coal shovel typically has a wide, flat blade with steeply turned sides, a flat face and a short D-shaped handle.
* A snowshovel often has a very wide sideless blade that curves upward attached to a long, straight handle. It is designed as much for pushing the snow as for lifting it. The blade can be metal or plastic, but the latter has been used to offer a lighter tool.
* A grain shovel has a wide aluminium or plastic blade that is attached to a short hardwood handle with "D" top. This shovel has been designed to offer a lighter tool that does not damage the grain. Early models were made from timber.
* In the 1800's shovels were called turf cutters and spades. They had cylinder-shaped wooden handles and metal triangle points at the end to dig with. Farmers used the shovels for digging up the ground on the farm and turning ground over to get richer soil. The shovels were handmade so they were all different sizes.
* A spade is designed primarily for breaking up ("spading") clumps of soil. A spade usually has a point and is designed to be pushed into the soil with a foot. Spade blades usually have a rounded face without sharply upturned sides.
* A Trench (or post hole) shovel (also known as a sharpshooter) is long and narrow, used for digging fairly deep, but narrow trenches, or post-holes.
* A gardening trowel is a small single-hand implement for breaking up clumps in soil. Gardening trowels typically have strong, narrow blades with sharp points.
* An entrenching tool is a collapsible and/or compact shovel designed for the military. It may have a spade-like point with sharpened or even serrated edges for secondary use as an axe or saw, respectively. Some militaries of the world (most notably units of the Soviet Union) train their servicemen to use entrenching shovels as makeshift close combat weapons. This tactic has been widely used in the battlefields of World War I and World War II.
* A roofing shovel is a specialized prying tool which evolved from the use of spading forks and pitchforks to remove old shingles and underlayment as part of roof repair.
* Toy shovels are common playthings on sandy beaches or in sandboxes.
* Barn Shovel used to shovel grain
* Coal shovel used to shovel coal
* Garden Shovel used a spade like blade to dig into hard dirt
* A scoop is a shovel-like tool, particularly one deep and curved, used in digging, the act of using such a tool, or a rough measure of volume equal to the carrying capacity of a scoop.
