Which to use
“shame” and “spams” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #36,158
- “shame” frequency rank
- #36,599
- “spams” frequency rank
- 72757
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shame | spams |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Honte. | Pluriel de spam. |
Where the eye mixes shame and spams
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. shame (CCVCV) and spams (CCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between shame and spams
A purely visual mix-up. shame (\ˈʃeɪm\) and spams (\spam\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72757, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
shame is recorded at frequency rank #36,158, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈʃeɪm\. spams is at rank #36,599, tagged as anoun, pronounced \spam\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 72757, this pair ranks #42,876 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of shame vs spams
Shared letters: ams. Private to "shame": eh. Private to "spams": p.
"shame" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "spams" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "shame" and "spams" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "shame" or "spams" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "shame" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "spams" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #42,876 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shame" and "spams" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shame vs stase". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #42,876 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.