recordsvsscansWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: records is a noun, scans is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#19,686
“records” frequency rank
#37,182
“scans” frequency rank
56868
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature records scans
Definition Plural des Substantivs record 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs scan

Letter map: records vs scans

Shared letters muted; letters that set records and scans apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. records runs 7 letters (CVCVCCC) against scans's 5 (CCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
records
5 ch
scans

Part-of-speech tell for records / scans

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: records is anoun and scansaverb. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56868, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

records is recorded at frequency rank #19,686, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. scans is at rank #37,182, 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 56868, this pair ranks #923,586 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of records vs scans

Shared letters: cs. Private to "records": deor. Private to "scans": an.

"records" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC  ·  "scans" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • recordsercords · rceords · reccords · recodrs · recordds · recordss · recorrds · recorsd
  • scanscsans · sacns · scanns · scanss · scasn · sccans · scnas · sscans

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "records" for "scans" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "records" is a noun and "scans" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "records" or "scans"?
"records" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,686 in our German list, against #37,182 for "scans". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "records" and "scans".

  • Full dictionary entry for "records" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "scans" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #923,586 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "records" and "scans" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs scans". 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 #923,586 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