Which to use
“shaman” and “shamans” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #21,932
- “shaman” frequency rank
- #38,160
- “shamans” frequency rank
- 60092
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shaman | shamans |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A traditional faith healer. | plural of shaman |
Where the eye mixes shaman and shamans
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. shaman runs 6 letters (CCVCVC) against shamans's 7 (CCVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses shaman with shamans
A purely visual mix-up. shaman (/ˈʃɑːmən/) and shamans (/ˈʃɑː.mənz/) 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 extra letter(s) - “shaman” sits inside “shamans”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60092, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
shaman is recorded at frequency rank #21,932, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈʃɑːmən/. shamans is at rank #38,160, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈʃɑː.mənz/.
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 60092, this pair ranks #102,245 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of shaman vs shamans
Shared letters: ahmns. Private to "shaman": -. Private to "shamans": -.
"shaman" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "shamans" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "shaman" for "shamans" ever safe?
Frequency check: "shaman" vs "shamans" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "shaman" and "shamans" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "shaman" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "shamans" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #102,245 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shaman" and "shamans" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shamans vs Shams". 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 #102,245 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.