Sheik or sheikh?
sheik is a noun meaning “Alternative form of sheikh”; sheikh is a noun meaning “The leader of an Arab village, family or small tribe”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) sheikh is about 3.2 times as common as sheik.
What is the difference between sheik and sheikh?
| sheik | sheikh | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun |
| Meaning | Alternative form of sheikh | The leader of an Arab village, family or small tribe An Islamic religious cleric; the master of a Sufi order The title of a sheikh |
| Example | none recorded | none recorded |
| Forms | sheiks, shuyookh | sheikhs |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /ʃeɪk/ /ʃik/ |
| In writing | 1.3 times per million words | 4.0 times per million words |
Sources: sheik and sheikh in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of sheik and sheikh
sheik
- 1
Alternative form of sheikh
sheikh
- 1
The leader of an Arab village, family or small tribe
- 2
The title of a sheikh
- 3
An Islamic religious cleric; the master of a Sufi order
- 4
Alternative letter-case form of sheikh (Yazidi caste)
- 5
An official title for members of the royal family as well as some prominent families
- 6
slangAn Arab, especially one dressed in traditional clothing
- 7
A member of one of the three hereditary, traditionally endogamous Yazidi castes, taking certain spiritual and leadership roles
- 8
An honorific for specialists in spirituality, for example in Sufism
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, sheik or sheikh?
sheik appears 1.3 times per million words; sheikh 4.0 times per million words.
sheik 1.3 times per million wordssheikh 4.0 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search sheik vs sheikh?
“sheik vs sheikh” is searched about 30 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“sheikh vs sheik”, “sheik or sheikh”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.