magmavsshortsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“magma” and “shorts” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#40,079
“magma” frequency rank
#17,410
“shorts” frequency rank
57489
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature magma shorts
Definition das Magma Plural des Substantivs short

Letter map: magma vs shorts

Shared letters muted; letters that set magma and shorts apart highlighted. No shared letter run. magma runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against shorts's 6 (CCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
magma
6 ch
shorts

Pair insight - magma / shorts

magma and shorts are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57489, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

magma is recorded at frequency rank #40,079, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. shorts is at rank #17,410, tagged as anoun, 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 57489, this pair ranks #899,360 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of magma vs shorts

Shared letters: none. Private to "magma": agm. Private to "shorts": horst.

"magma" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "shorts" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • magma ← amgma · magam · maggma · magmma · mamga · mgama · mmagma
  • shorts ← hsorts · shhorts · shorrts · shorst · shortss · shortts · shotrs · shrots

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "magma" for "shorts" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "magma" or "shorts"?
"shorts" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,410 in our German list, against #40,079 for "magma". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "magma" and "shorts". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "magma" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "shorts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #899,360 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "magma" and "shorts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "magma vs puzzles". 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 #899,360 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