ShowvssnowWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,333
“Show” frequency rank
#15,996
“snow” frequency rank
17329
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Where the eye mixes Show and snow

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

4 ch
Show
4 ch
snow

Why the eye confuses Show with snow

A purely visual mix-up. Show ([ʃɔʊ̯]) and snow ([snəʊ]) 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 a single letter - h in “Show” becomes n in “snow”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17329, 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]. snow is at rank #15,996, tagged as anoun, pronounced [snəʊ].

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 17329, this pair ranks #1,928,338 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Show vs snow

Shared letters: osw. Private to "Show": h. Private to "snow": n.

"Show" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "snow" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Showhsow · shhow · showw · shwo · sohw · sshow
  • snownsow · snnow · snoww · snwo · sonw · ssnow

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Show" and "snow" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ʃɔʊ̯] versus [snəʊ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Show" or "snow"?
"Show" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,333 in our German list, against #15,996 for "snow". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Show" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "snow" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,928,338 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Show" and "snow" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Smog vs snow". 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 #1,928,338 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