sham
/ʃæm/
"sham" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sham” has 6 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #16,126. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #16,126
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Intended to deceive; false.
Corpus desk
Index EN-sham · sham · English
sham · rank #16,126 · 6 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #16,126
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 6 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH shaky
Nearest frequency peer: shaky (-1 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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “sham”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- Semitism
Semitism
83,878 corpus weight
- sew
sew
83,877 corpus weight
- shaky
shaky
83,876 corpus weight
- sham
sham
83,875 corpus weight
- shortcomings
shortcomings
83,874 corpus weight
- shredded
shredded
83,873 corpus weight
What this shows “sham” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sham |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ʃæm/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #16,126 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “sham”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 6 spelling variants around sham (IPA /ʃæm/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #16,126 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for sham, with forms such as "hsam", "sahm", and "shamm". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "SM", "she", "sum", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Probably a dialectal form of shame. Alternatively, sham is a term that is used to describe the bottom thick base of a glass, usually a wine or stem glass, where the stem meets the bulbous shape bowl. Glass manufacturers would increase the "sham" to deceive … The correct English form is sham, spelled S-H-A-M.
Definition
- 1Intended to deceive; false.
- 2Counterfeit; unreal.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how sham appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
It was only a sham wedding: they didn't care much for one another, but wanted their parents to stop hassling them.
Artiles, a Republican operative with a reputation for a foul mouth and sharp elbows, is accused of financing a sham candidate whose candidacy was intended to siphon votes from a legitimate Democratic candidate in a state Senate race in South Florida’s 37th District. The candidate has the same last name as then-Democratic incumbent Jose Javier Rodriguez bu…
Etymology
Probably a dialectal form of shame. Alternatively, sham is a term that is used to describe the bottom thick base of a glass, usually a wine or stem glass, where the stem meets the bulbous shape bowl. Glass manufacturers would increase the "sham" to deceive customers into thinking a glass holds more than it actually does. For example, a manufacturer would mold a 12oz glass with a larger "sham" in the base to reduce the volume of the glasses to fit 10-11oz of liquid. By increasing the bulge in the base, usually where the stem meets the glass, it is almost impossible to visually distinguish the difference. This gives the illusion the glass size is the same as any another 12oz glass, but the inside will hold a lesser volume. Later, bringing use to the term "you got shammed" when one party tries to hide something and/or get over on the other party using deceiving tactics.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- hsam
- sahm
- shamm
- shham
- shma
- ssham
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sham - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "sham", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).