love-shy
"love-shy" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“love-shy” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Ineffectual at courtship or attaining sexual intercourse.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | love-shy |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “love-shy” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
love-shy is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Ineffectual at courtship or attaining sexual intercourse.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for love-shy, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From love + shy. Attributed to late sociologist Brian G. Gilmartin. The correct English form is love-shy, spelled L-O-V-E---S-H-Y.
Definition
- 1Ineffectual at courtship or attaining sexual intercourse.
Etymology
From love + shy. Attributed to late sociologist Brian G. Gilmartin.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “love-shy”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is L-O-V-E---S-H-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.