SchamvsslamWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“Scham” and “slam” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#12,373
“Scham” frequency rank
#12,387
“slam” frequency rank
24760
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Scham slam
Definition angstbesetztes Empfinden, das meist durch eigenes und von anderen beobachtbares Fehlverhalten ausgelöst wird, durch das man deren Achtung zu verlieren droht Poetry-Slam, Poetryslam, Slam

Where the eye mixes Scham and slam

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Scham
4 ch
slam

Visual trap between Scham and slam

A purely visual mix-up. Scham ([ʃaːm]) and slam ([slam]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24760, 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]. slam is at rank #12,387, tagged as anoun, pronounced [slam].

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 24760, this pair ranks #1,843,154 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Scham vs slam

Shared letters: ams. Private to "Scham": ch. Private to "slam": l.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Schamcsham · scahm · sccham · schamm · schham · schma · shcam · sscham
  • slamlsam · salm · slamm · sllam · slma · sslam

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Scham" and "slam" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ʃaːm] versus [slam]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Scham" or "slam" show up more?
"Scham" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,373 in our German list, against #12,387 for "slam". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "Scham" and "slam" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Scham" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "slam" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,843,154 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Scham" and "slam" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sai vs slam". 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 #1,843,154 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