policy vs shows, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“policy” is a noun and “shows” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,150
“policy” frequency rank: #8,130
“shows” frequency rank: 22280
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	policy	shows
Definition	Politik auf der inhaltlichen Ebene, in Abgrenzung zu polity und politics	3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs show

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set policy and shows apart are highlighted. They share 1 letter in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch

policy

5 ch

shows

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: policy is anoun and showsaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22280, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

policy is recorded at frequency rank #14,150, classified as anoun, 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 22280, this pair ranks #1,876,115 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of policy vs shows

Shared letters: o. Private to "policy": cilpy. Private to "shows": hsw.

"policy" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "shows" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

policy ← oplicy · ploicy · poilcy · polciy · policcy · policyy · poliyc · pollicy
shows ← hsows · shhows · shosw · showss · showws · shwos · sohws · sshows

Frequency comparison

policy#14,150

shows#8,130

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "policy" and "shows" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "policy" is a noun and "shows" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "policy" or "shows"?

"shows" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,130 in our German list, against #14,150 for "policy". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering policy vs shows

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “policy”; for a verb, it's “shows”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “policy” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable