samavsSiamWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#45,559
“sama” frequency rank
#46,278
“Siam” frequency rank
91837
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sama Siam
Definition Elefant Königreich in Südostasien, größtenteils auf dem Gebiet des heutigen Thailands

Where the eye mixes sama and Siam

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. sama (CVCV) and Siam (CVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
sama
4 ch
Siam

Visual trap between sama and Siam

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sama is [sàmá] while Siam is [ˈziːam]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 91837, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sama is recorded at frequency rank #45,559, classified as anoun, pronounced [sàmá]. Siam is at rank #46,278, tagged as aname, pronounced [ˈziːam].

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 91837, this pair ranks #34,592 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sama vs Siam

Shared letters: ams. Private to "sama": -. Private to "Siam": i.

"sama" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Siam" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sama ← asma · saam · samma · smaa · ssama
  • Siam ← isam · siamm · sima · ssiam

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sama" for "Siam" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sama" is a noun and "Siam" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "sama" or "Siam" show up more?
"sama" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #45,559 in our German list, against #46,278 for "Siam". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sama" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Siam" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #34,592 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sama" and "Siam" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Siam vs Sire". 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 #34,592 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