horseshoe

/ˈhɔːɹs.ʃuː/noun, verb

horseshoe is spelled H-O-R-S-E-S-H-O-E: 9 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 1.4 times per million words in written English, the 23,536th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, horseshoe means “The U-shaped shoe of a horse, now typically made of metal; by extension, a representation of this used to play the game horseshoes, hung as a luck…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of horseshoe is horseshoes.

How many letters and syllables are in horseshoe?

Letters	9: H-O-R-S-E-S-H-O-E
Syllables	2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing	1.4 times per million words; the 23,536th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched	none measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is horseshoe?

Horseshoe appears 1.4 times per million words in written English, the 23,536th most frequent word form in the list.

horseshoe0.0010.010.11101001,00010,000

rarerper million words of written Englishmore common

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce horseshoe?

UK /ˈhɔːs.ʃuː/
UK /ˈhɔː.ʃuː/
US /ˈhɔːɹs.ʃuː/

Horseshoe has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-horseshoe.ogg, En-au-horseshoe.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with horseshoe

Also written: horse shoe (one word or two).

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of horseshoe

horseshoes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
horseshoeing participle, present
horseshoed participle, past
horseshod participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does horseshoe mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

1
The U-shaped shoe of a horse, now typically made of metal; by extension, a representation of this used to play the game horseshoes, hung as a luck charm, etc.
And what has been thus affirmed of other leading commodities; the blacksmith, for example, no longer making, but buying his horseshoes, nails, nuts, and bolts;
2
The U shape of a horseshoe.
the horseshoe of the Carpathians
3
slangA well-developed set of triceps brachii muscles.
4
The symbol ⊃.
5
An open-faced sandwich originating from Springfield, Illinois, consisting of thick-sliced toasted bread, often Texas toast, a hamburger patty, French fries, and a cheese sauce.
6
A U-shaped life buoy.

verb

1
To apply horseshoes to (a horse).