ShowvsslowWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Show is a noun, slow is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Show” is a noun and “slow” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,333
“Show” frequency rank
#22,146
“slow” frequency rank
23479
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Where the eye mixes Show and slow

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

4 ch
Show
4 ch
slow

Visual trap between Show and slow

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Show is [ʃɔʊ̯] while slow is [sləʊ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - h in “Show” becomes l in “slow”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23479, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Show is recorded at frequency rank #1,333, classified as anoun, pronounced [ʃɔʊ̯]. slow is at rank #22,146, tagged as anadj, pronounced [sləʊ].

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 23479, this pair ranks #1,860,776 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Show vs slow

Shared letters: osw. Private to "Show": h. Private to "slow": l.

"Show" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "slow" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Showhsow · shhow · showw · shwo · sohw · sshow
  • slowlsow · sllow · sloww · slwo · solw · sslow

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Show" for "slow" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Show" is a noun and "slow" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Show" or "slow"?
"Show" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,333 in our German list, against #22,146 for "slow". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Show" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "slow" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,860,776 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Show" and "slow" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "slow vs Smog". 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 #1,860,776 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