PanamavspanemTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#14,887
“Panama” frequency rank
#42,040
“panem” frequency rank
56927
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Panama panem
Definition Staat in Mittelamerika Akkusativ Singular des Substantivs panis

Letter map: Panama vs panem

Shared letters muted; letters that set Panama and panem apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
Panama
5 ch
panem

Grammar separator: Panama vs panem

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Panama is aname and panemanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56927, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Panama is recorded at frequency rank #14,887, classified as aname, pronounced [ˈpanaˌmaː]. panem is at rank #42,040, 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 56927, this pair ranks #921,301 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Panama vs panem

Shared letters: amnp. Private to "Panama": -. Private to "panem": e.

"Panama" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "panem" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Panamaapnama · paanma · panaam · panamma · panmaa · pannama · pnaama · ppanama
  • panemapnem · paenm · panemm · panme · pannem · pnaem · ppanem

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Panama" for "panem" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Panama" is a name and "panem" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Panama" or "panem" show up more?
"Panama" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,887 in our German list, against #42,040 for "panem". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "Panama" vs "panem" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Panama" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "panem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #921,301 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Panama" and "panem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "panem 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 #921,301 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