showvssocConfusable pair

Which to use

“show” and “soc” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#2,852
“show” frequency rank
#18,598
“soc” frequency rank
21450
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature show soc
Definition Spectacle. Large pièce de fer triangulaire et tranchante qui fait partie d’une charrue, et qui sert à fendre et à renverser la terre d’un champ qu’on laboure.

Where the eye mixes show and soc

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
show
3 ch
soc

Why the eye confuses show with soc

A purely visual mix-up. show (\ʃo\) and soc (\sɔk\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21450, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

show is recorded at frequency rank #2,852, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃo\. soc is at rank #18,598, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɔk\.

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 21450, this pair ranks #363,108 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of show vs soc

Shared letters: os. Private to "show": hw. Private to "soc": c.

"show" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "soc" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • showhsow · shhow · showw · shwo · sohw · sshow

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "show" and "soc" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʃo\ versus \sɔk\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "show" or "soc"?
"show" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,852 in our French list, against #18,598 for "soc". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "show" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "soc" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #363,108 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "show" and "soc" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "soc vs suu". 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 #363,108 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list