Which to use
“showman” is a noun and “shown” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #38,616
- “showman” frequency rank
- #1,354
- “shown” frequency rank
- 39970
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | showman | shown |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A person (usually a man) involved in putting on shows (of various types); especially, one who plays a central role in doing so. | past participle of show |
Letter map: showman vs shown
Shared letters muted; letters that set showman and shown apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.
Part-of-speech tell for showman / shown
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: showman is anoun and shownaverb. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39970, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
showman is recorded at frequency rank #38,616, classified as anoun. shown is at rank #1,354, tagged as averb, pronounced /ʃəʊn/.
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 39970, this pair ranks #271,853 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of showman vs shown
Shared letters: hnosw. Private to "showman": am. Private to "shown": -.
"showman" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC · "shown" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "showman" and "shown" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "showman" or "shown"?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "showman" and "shown".
- Full dictionary entry for "showman" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "shown" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #271,853 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "showman" and "shown" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "showman vs snowman". 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 #271,853 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.