culture shock
/ˈkʰʌlt͡ʃʰɚ ʃɑːk/
"culture-shock" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“culture shock” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A state of anxious confusion experienced by someone exposed to an alien or unfamiliar environment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | culture shock |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkʰʌlt͡ʃʰɚ ʃɑːk/ |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “culture shock” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
culture shock is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈkʰʌlt͡ʃʰɚ ʃɑːk/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A state of anxious confusion experienced by someone exposed to an alien or unfamiliar environment.".
culture shock doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From the earlier form cultural shock. The correct English form is culture shock, spelled C-U-L-T-U-R-E- -S-H-O-C-K.
Definition
- 1A state of anxious confusion experienced by someone exposed to an alien or unfamiliar environment.
Etymology
From the earlier form cultural shock.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “culture shock”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-U-L-T-U-R-E- -S-H-O-C-K - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkʰʌlt͡ʃʰɚ ʃɑːk/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.