SchamvsShawConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#12,373
“Scham” frequency rank
#16,826
“Shaw” frequency rank
29199
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Scham Shaw
Definition angstbesetztes Empfinden, das meist durch eigenes und von anderen beobachtbares Fehlverhalten ausgelöst wird, durch das man deren Achtung zu verlieren droht Familienname, Nachname

Letter map: Scham vs Shaw

Shared letters muted; letters that set Scham and Shaw apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
Scham
4 ch
Shaw

Part-of-speech tell for Scham / Shaw

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Scham is anoun and Shawaname. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29199, 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]. Shaw is at rank #16,826, tagged as aname, 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 29199, this pair ranks #1,771,223 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Scham vs Shaw

Shared letters: ahs. Private to "Scham": cm. Private to "Shaw": w.

"Scham" · 5 letters · shape CCCVC  ·  "Shaw" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Schamcsham · scahm · sccham · schamm · schham · schma · shcam · sscham
  • Shawhsaw · sahw · shaww · shhaw · shwa · sshaw

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Scham" for "Shaw" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Scham" is a noun and "Shaw" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Scham" vs "Shaw" - which ranks higher?
"Scham" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,373 in our German list, against #16,826 for "Shaw". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "Scham" and "Shaw". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Scham" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Shaw" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,771,223 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Scham" and "Shaw" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs Shaw". 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 #1,771,223 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