show
/ʃəʊ/
"show" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“show” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #199 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #199
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To display, to have somebody see (something).
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 | show |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ʃəʊ/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #199 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “show” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for show is 4 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ʃəʊ/. Corpus data places it at rank #199 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for show, with forms such as "hsow", "shhow", and "showw". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "so", "SW", "son", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English schewen, from Old English scēawian (“to look, look at, exhibit, display”), from Proto-West Germanic *skauwōn, from Proto-Germanic *skawwōną (“to look, see”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewh₁- (“to heed, look, feel, take note of”); see … The correct English form is show, spelled S-H-O-W.
Definition
- 1To display, to have somebody see (something).
- 2To bestow; to confer.
- 3To indicate (a fact) to be true; to demonstrate.
- 4To guide or escort.
- 5To be visible; to be seen; to appear.
- 6To put in an appearance; show up.
- 7To have an enlarged belly and thus be recognizable as pregnant.
- 8To finish third, especially of horses or dogs.
- 9To reveal one's hand of cards.
- 10To have a certain appearance, such as well or ill, fit or unfit; to become or suit; to appear.
Etymology
From Middle English schewen, from Old English scēawian (“to look, look at, exhibit, display”), from Proto-West Germanic *skauwōn, from Proto-Germanic *skawwōną (“to look, see”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewh₁- (“to heed, look, feel, take note of”); see haw, gaum, caveat, caution. Cognate with Scots shaw (“to show”), Dutch schouwen (“to inspect, view”), German schauen (“to see, behold”), Danish skue (“to behold”). Related to sheen. Wider cognates include Ancient Greek κῦδος (kûdos), Latin caveō whence English caution and caveat, Sanskrit कवि (kaví, “seer, prophet, bard”), Proto-Slavic *čuti (whence Russian чу́ять (čújatʹ) and many more).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hsow,shhow,showw,shwo,sohw,sshow
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of show - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “show”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-H-O-W - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ʃəʊ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “so” - see the side-by-side comparison. show vs so
- 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.