sham
\ʃæm\
The verdict
“sham” is uncommon French (frequency #50,508 among 6,032 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #50,508
- frequency rank, French
- 6,032
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Simulacre.
Corpus desk
Index FR-sham · sham · French
sham · rank #50,508 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #50,508
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,032
- PHOTO-FINISH sexuée
Nearest frequency peer: sexuée (-1 rank slots)
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.
Rangs de longue queue près de « sham »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- Sellerie
Sellerie
49,496 corpus weight
- sextoy
sextoy
49,495 corpus weight
- sexuée
sexuée
49,494 corpus weight
- sham
sham
49,493 corpus weight
- simplificat…
simplifications
49,492 corpus weight
- skinheads
skinheads
49,491 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « sham » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sham |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ʃæm\ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #50,508 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « sham » en français
Rare enough to double-check
sham is uncommon French at frequency #50,508 among 6,032 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ʃæm\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for sham in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is sham, spelled S-H-A-M.
Definition
- 1Simulacre.
- 2Imposture.
- 3Imposteur.
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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "sham", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).