Which to use
“Scham” is a noun and “shame” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,373
- “Scham” frequency rank
- #43,491
- “shame” frequency rank
- 55864
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Scham | shame |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | angstbesetztes Empfinden, das meist durch eigenes und von anderen beobachtbares Fehlverhalten ausgelöst wird, durch das man deren Achtung zu verlieren droht | jemanden beschämen |
Letter map: Scham vs shame
Shared letters muted; letters that set Scham and shame apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. Scham (CCCVC) and shame (CCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Part-of-speech tell for Scham / shame
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Scham is anoun and shameaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55864, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Scham is recorded at frequency rank #12,373, classified as anoun, pronounced [ʃaːm]. shame is at rank #43,491, 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 55864, this pair ranks #962,769 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Scham vs shame
Shared letters: ahms. Private to "Scham": c. Private to "shame": e.
"Scham" · 5 letters · shape CCCVC · "shame" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "Scham" and "shame" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "Scham" vs "shame" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Scham" and "shame".
- Full dictionary entry for "Scham" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "shame" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #962,769 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Scham" and "shame" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs shame". 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 #962,769 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.