lion's share
/ˈlaɪ.əns ʃɛə/
"lion-s-share" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“lion's share” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The majority; a large or generous portion.
Corpus desk
Index EN-lion-s-share · lion's share · English
lion's share · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "L" 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 | lion's share |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈlaɪ.əns ʃɛə/ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “lion's share” in English
Rare enough to double-check
lion's share is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈlaɪ.əns ʃɛə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The majority; a large or generous portion.".
lion's share has no tracked misspelling variants, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Aesop’s fable The Lion's Share, in which a lion claims the full amount of the spoil after hunting with a number of other beasts. In one version of the fable, the lion claims three-quarters of the kill rather than the whole, leaving the three other anim… The correct English form is lion's share, spelled L-I-O-N-'-S- -S-H-A-R-E.
Definition
- 1The majority; a large or generous portion.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how lion's share appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
They got a large donation, but the lion’s share of the money went straight into paying off debt.
In place of dividing the merit of the discovery between the Englishman and the Scotchman, and giving the lion's share to my countryman, I have given the whole merit of the discovery to [Henry] Cavendish the Englishman, and have reserved only for [James] Watt the Scotchman, the merit of the previous hypothesis,—a merit freely given him by Cavendish himself…
Etymology
From Aesop’s fable The Lion's Share, in which a lion claims the full amount of the spoil after hunting with a number of other beasts. In one version of the fable, the lion claims three-quarters of the kill rather than the whole, leaving the three other animals to fight over the remainder.
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.