muscle shirt

noun

"muscle-shirt" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“muscle shirt” 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) - A sleeveless shirt tailored to display the muscles of the body.

Corpus desk

Index EN-muscle-shirt · muscle shirt · English

muscle shirt · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 12 letters
  • VOW-3 3 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 muscle shirt
PropertyValue
Headwordmuscle shirt
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters12
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “muscle shirt” in English

muscle shirtranks 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

muscle shirt is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A sleeveless shirt tailored to display the muscles of the body.".

Zero misspellings are on record for muscle shirt in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

Etymologically, the entry records: So called because they display the muscles; these shirts were stereotypically associated with surfers and bodybuilders. The correct English form is muscle shirt, spelled M-U-S-C-L-E- -S-H-I-R-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    A sleeveless shirt tailored to display the muscles of the body.

Etymology

So called because they display the muscles; these shirts were stereotypically associated with surfers and bodybuilders.

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 "muscle shirt"?
"muscle shirt" is spelled M-U-S-C-L-E- -S-H-I-R-T.
What does "muscle shirt" mean?
As a noun, "muscle shirt" means: A sleeveless shirt tailored to display the muscles of the body.
What is the origin of the word "muscle shirt"?
So called because they display the muscles; these shirts were stereotypically associated with surfers and bodybuilders. See the full etymology section above for more details.
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