in two shakes
"in-two-shakes" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“in two shakes” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a prep_phrase. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Very quickly; without delay.
Corpus desk
Index EN-in-two-shakes · in two shakes · English
in two shakes · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "I" 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 | in two shakes |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Prep_phrase |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “in two shakes” in English
Rare enough to double-check
in two shakes is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aprep_phrase. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Very quickly; without delay.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for in two shakes, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is in two shakes, spelled I-N- -T-W-O- -S-H-A-K-E-S.
Definition
- 1Very quickly; without delay.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how in two shakes appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
by George! we would souse the Lords o' the Admiralty themselves, if they were here, in a couple of shakes
She tried to get the case open. . . . "I wish Father was here," said Phyllis; "he'd get it open in two shakes."
Synonyms
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.