megavsshowsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,982
“mega” frequency rank
#8,130
“shows” frequency rank
12112
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mega shows
Definition die Erlaubnis haben; dürfen 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs show

Letter map: mega vs shows

Shared letters muted; letters that set mega and shows apart highlighted. No shared letter run. mega runs 4 letters (CVCV) against shows's 5 (CCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
mega
5 ch
shows

Corpus notes: mega and shows

mega and shows 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 12112, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mega is recorded at frequency rank #3,982, classified as averb, pronounced […]. shows is at rank #8,130, tagged as averb, 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 12112, this pair ranks #1,966,109 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mega vs shows

Shared letters: none. Private to "mega": aegm. Private to "shows": hosw.

"mega" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "shows" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mega ← emga · meag · megga · mgea · mmega
  • shows ← hsows · shhows · shosw · showss · showws · shwos · sohws · sshows

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mega" for "shows" 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.
Frequency check: "mega" vs "shows" - which ranks higher?
"mega" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,982 in our German list, against #8,130 for "shows". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "mega" vs "shows" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mega" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "shows" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,966,109 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mega" and "shows" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs shows". 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 #1,966,109 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