machinevsShawWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: machine is a noun, Shaw is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“machine” is a noun and “Shaw” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,337
“machine” frequency rank
#16,826
“Shaw” frequency rank
29163
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature machine Shaw
Definition ein Apparat mit vielen beweglichen Teilen; gestaltet um eine Aufgabe zu erfüllen. Familienname, Nachname

Letter map: machine vs Shaw

Shared letters muted; letters that set machine and Shaw apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. machine runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against Shaw's 4 (CCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
machine
4 ch
Shaw

Part-of-speech tell for machine / Shaw

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: machine is anoun and Shawaname. On the page they differ by 3 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29163, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

machine is recorded at frequency rank #12,337, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. Shaw is at rank #16,826, tagged as aname, pronounced […].

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 29163, this pair ranks #1,771,854 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of machine vs Shaw

Shared letters: ah. Private to "machine": ceimn. Private to "Shaw": sw.

"machine" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "Shaw" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • machineamchine · macchine · machhine · machien · machinne · machnie · macihne · mahcine
  • Shawhsaw · sahw · shaww · shhaw · shwa · sshaw

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "machine" and "Shaw" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "machine" is a noun and "Shaw" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "machine" vs "Shaw" - which ranks higher?
"machine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,337 in our German list, against #16,826 for "Shaw". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "machine" vs "Shaw" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "machine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Shaw" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,771,854 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "machine" and "Shaw" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs Shaw". 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 #1,771,854 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list