eschew
/ɛsˈt͡ʃuː/
"eschew" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“eschew” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #48,730 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #48,730
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To avoid; to shun, to shy away from.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | eschew |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ɛsˈt͡ʃuː/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #48,730 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “eschew” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for eschew is 6 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɛsˈt͡ʃuː/. Corpus data places it at rank #48,730 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "To avoid; to shun, to shy away from.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for eschew, with forms such as "ecshew", "escchew", and "escehw". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 3 confusable-pair relationships, "Esther", "etched", "escrow", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English eschewen, from Anglo-Norman eschiver, (third-person present eschiu), from Frankish *skiuhijan (“to dread, shun, avoid”); thus a doublet of skew. For the pronunciation with /ʃ/, compare the development of marshal from Middle English marsc… The correct English form is eschew, spelled E-S-C-H-E-W.
Definition
- 1To avoid; to shun, to shy away from.
Etymology
From Middle English eschewen, from Anglo-Norman eschiver, (third-person present eschiu), from Frankish *skiuhijan (“to dread, shun, avoid”); thus a doublet of skew. For the pronunciation with /ʃ/, compare the development of marshal from Middle English marschal (/marsˈt͡ʃaːl/) or Middle English myssheve, variant of myschef (“hardship”). Variants in /sk/ are either from unattested Middle English *eskewen (from Old Northern French eskiver; compare skew) or are spelling pronunciations. See also French esquiver.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ecshew,escchew,escehw,escheww,eschhew,eschwe,eshcew,esschew,sechew
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of eschew - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "eschew"?
What does "eschew" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "eschew"?
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Using “eschew”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is E-S-C-H-E-W - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɛsˈt͡ʃuː/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Esther” - see the side-by-side comparison. eschew vs Esther
- 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.