shamevsSpamTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#43,491
“shame” frequency rank
#9,454
“Spam” frequency rank
52945
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature shame Spam
Definition jemanden beschämen Gesamtheit aller unerwünschter, oft gehäuft abgesendeter Nachrichten (meist für Werbezwecke, ohne Themenbezug)

Letter map: shame vs Spam

Shared letters muted; letters that set shame and Spam apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. shame runs 5 letters (CCVCV) against Spam's 4 (CCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
shame
4 ch
Spam

Role in the sentence - shame and Spam

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: shame is averb and Spamanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52945, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

shame is recorded at frequency rank #43,491, classified as averb, pronounced […]. Spam is at rank #9,454, tagged as anoun, pronounced [spɛm].

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 52945, this pair ranks #1,077,127 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of shame vs Spam

Shared letters: ams. Private to "shame": eh. Private to "Spam": p.

"shame" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "Spam" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • shamehsame · sahme · shaem · shamme · shhame · shmae · sshame
  • Spampsam · sapm · spamm · spma · sppam · sspam

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "shame" and "Spam" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "shame" is a verb and "Spam" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "shame" vs "Spam" - which ranks higher?
"Spam" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,454 in our German list, against #43,491 for "shame". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "shame" vs "Spam" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "shame" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Spam" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,077,127 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "shame" and "Spam" 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 #1,077,127 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