shame
/ʃeɪm/
"shame" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“shame” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,761 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #2,761
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An uncomfortable or painful feeling due to recognition or consciousness of one's own impropriety or dishonor, or something being exposed that should have been kept private.
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 | shame |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ʃeɪm/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #2,761 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “shame” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for shame is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ʃeɪm/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,761 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for shame, with forms such as "hsame", "sahme", and "shaem". 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, "she", "SME", "some", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English schame, from Old English sċamu, from Proto-Germanic *skamō. Cognates *German Scham (“shame”) *German Low German Schaam (“shame, shamefacedness”) *Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Swedish skam (“shame”) *Faroese skomm (“shame,… The correct English form is shame, spelled S-H-A-M-E.
Definition
- 1An uncomfortable or painful feeling due to recognition or consciousness of one's own impropriety or dishonor, or something being exposed that should have been kept private.
- 2Something to regret.
- 3Reproach incurred or suffered; dishonour; ignominy; derision.
- 4The cause or reason of shame; that which brings reproach and ignominy.
- 5That which is shameful and private, especially private parts.
- 6The capacity to be ashamed, inhibiting one from brazen behaviour; due regard for one's own moral conduct and how one is perceived by others; restraint, moderation, decency.
Etymology
From Middle English schame, from Old English sċamu, from Proto-Germanic *skamō. Cognates *German Scham (“shame”) *German Low German Schaam (“shame, shamefacedness”) *Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Swedish skam (“shame”) *Faroese skomm (“shame, dishonour”) *Icelandic skömm (“shame”) *Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌼𐌰 (skama, “shame”).
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hsame,sahme,shaem,shamme,shhame,shmae,sshame
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of shame - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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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Using “shame”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-H-A-M-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ʃeɪm/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “she” - see the side-by-side comparison. shame vs she
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.