shockvsShowConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#39,629
“shock” frequency rank
#1,333
“Show” frequency rank
40962
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature shock Show
Definition Schock Vorführung eines (großen) Unterhaltungsprogramms vor Publikum (beispielsweise im Theater oder Varieté; oft in Fernsehen oder Radio übertragen), teilweise mit Informationscharakter

Letter map: shock vs Show

Shared letters muted; letters that set shock and Show apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
shock
4 ch
Show

Corpus notes: shock and Show

shock and Show are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40962, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

shock is recorded at frequency rank #39,629, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. Show is at rank #1,333, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ʃɔʊ̯].

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 40962, this pair ranks #1,493,299 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of shock vs Show

Shared letters: hos. Private to "shock": ck. Private to "Show": w.

"shock" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "Show" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • shockhsock · shcok · shhock · shocck · shockk · shokc · sohck · sshock
  • Showhsow · shhow · showw · shwo · sohw · sshow

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "shock" for "Show" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "shock" vs "Show" - which ranks higher?
"Show" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,333 in our German list, against #39,629 for "shock". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pair "shock" vs "Show" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "shock" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Show" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,493,299 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "shock" and "Show" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs shock". 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 #1,493,299 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