mover and shaker

noun

"mover-and-shaker" is a 14-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“mover and shaker” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
16
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Someone who has power and influence in a field or activity; one who accomplishes tasks, who gets things done.

Corpus desk

Index EN-mover-and-shaker · mover and shaker · English

mover and shaker · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 16 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "M" 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.

Key facts for mover and shaker
PropertyValue
Headwordmover and shaker
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters16
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “mover and shaker” in English

mover and shakerranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

mover and shaker is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Someone who has power and influence in a field or activity; one who accomplishes tasks, who gets things done.".

No generated misspelling entries exist for mover and shaker in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is mover and shaker, spelled M-O-V-E-R- -A-N-D- -S-H-A-K-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Someone who has power and influence in a field or activity; one who accomplishes tasks, who gets things done.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how mover and shaker appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. The sales team sought to talk to the movers and shakers within an organization, rather than to their underlings.
  2. He really is a mover and a shaker in those circles.

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "mover and shaker"?
"mover and shaker" is spelled M-O-V-E-R- -A-N-D- -S-H-A-K-E-R.
What does "mover and shaker" mean?
As a noun, "mover and shaker" means: Someone who has power and influence in a field or activity; one who accomplishes tasks, who gets things done.
What language does "mover and shaker" come from?
"mover and shaker" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list