five o'clock shadow
"five-o-clock-shadow" is a 16-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“five o'clock shadow” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 19
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A dark appearance on a man's chin and face caused by the slight growth of beard that has occurred since he shaved in the morning.
Corpus desk
Index EN-five-o-clock-shadow · five o'clock shadow · English
five o'clock shadow · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 19 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "F" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | five o'clock shadow |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 19 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “five o'clock shadow” in English
Rare enough to double-check
five o'clock shadow is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A dark appearance on a man's chin and face caused by the slight growth of beard that has occurred since he shaved in the morning.".
No misspelling variants are generated for five o'clock shadow in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: First use appears c. 1942, US, advertising copy written by Jules B. Singer of the Federal Advertising Agency for the Gem brand of safety razors, made by the American Safety Razor Company. The correct English form is five o'clock shadow, spelled F-I-V-E- -O-'-C-L-O-C-K- -S-H-A-D-O-W.
Definition
- 1A dark appearance on a man's chin and face caused by the slight growth of beard that has occurred since he shaved in the morning.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how five o'clock shadow appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Men Wanted Without 5 O’Clock Shadow! To get on her wanted list, you must put your best face forward. Avoid “5 o’clock shadow” — that messy afternoon beard-growth. Stay face-neat all day long by shaving with a genuine Gem Blade.
Etymology
First use appears c. 1942, US, advertising copy written by Jules B. Singer of the Federal Advertising Agency for the Gem brand of safety razors, made by the American Safety Razor Company.
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.