scram
/skɹæm/
"scram" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“scram” is uncommon English (frequency #63,228 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #63,228
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To leave in a hurry; to go away.
Corpus desk
Index EN-scram · scram · English
scram · rank #63,228 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #63,228
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH sawtooth
Nearest frequency peer: sawtooth (-3 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “scram”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Sandys
Sandys
36,780 corpus weight
- sapping
sapping
36,778 corpus weight
- sawtooth
sawtooth
36,776 corpus weight
- scram
scram
36,773 corpus weight
- seahawk
seahawk
36,770 corpus weight
- seascape
seascape
36,768 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “scram” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | scram |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /skɹæm/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #63,228 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “scram” in English
Rare enough to double-check
scram is uncommon English at frequency #63,228 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed /skɹæm/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To leave in a hurry; to go away.".
scram has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Probably either: * a clipping of scramble by apocope; or * from dialectal German schramm, the imperative singular form of schrammen (“to scratch, scrape”), from Late Middle High German schramm, schramme (“a graze, scratch”); further etymology unknown. The correct English form is scram, spelled S-C-R-A-M.
Definition
- 1To leave in a hurry; to go away.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how scram appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
What are you kids doing on my lawn? Scram!
Maybe when he found that Chet's jalopy was gone, he felt he'd better scram, and forgot the coat and hat.
Etymology
Probably either: * a clipping of scramble by apocope; or * from dialectal German schramm, the imperative singular form of schrammen (“to scratch, scrape”), from Late Middle High German schramm, schramme (“a graze, scratch”); further etymology unknown.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "scram", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).