potsherd
/ˈpɒt.ʃɜːd/
"potsherd" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“potsherd” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A piece of ceramic from pottery, often found on an archaeological site.
Corpus desk
Index EN-potsherd · potsherd · English
potsherd · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "P" 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 | potsherd |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpɒt.ʃɜːd/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “potsherd” in English
Rare enough to double-check
potsherd is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈpɒt.ʃɜːd/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A piece of ceramic from pottery, often found on an archaeological site.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for potsherd in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English pot-sherd, pot-schord, pot scherd, pot scarth, from Middle English pot, pote, potte (“a container, pot, vessel; especially an earthenware vessel”) (from late Old English pot, pott (“a pot”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *budn- (“a… The correct English form is potsherd, spelled P-O-T-S-H-E-R-D.
Definition
- 1A piece of ceramic from pottery, often found on an archaeological site.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how potsherd appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
But this madde Amalecke, / Lyke to a Mamelek, / He regardeth lordes / No more than potshordes; […]
[W]ho can deny but that the rod of Gods mouth is indeed Virga virtutis, a rod of strength, an iron rod, able to deale with all humane reaſonings, as a hammer with a potſherd, which though to the hand of a man it may feele as hard as a rocke, yet is too brittle to endure the blow of an iron rod?
Etymology
From Middle English pot-sherd, pot-schord, pot scherd, pot scarth, from Middle English pot, pote, potte (“a container, pot, vessel; especially an earthenware vessel”) (from late Old English pot, pott (“a pot”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *budn- (“a type of vessel”)) + Middle English sherd (“piece of fired clay or broken earthenware; potsherd”) (from Old English sceard (“a shard, sherd”), from Proto-Germanic *skardą (“a nick, notch”)); equivalent to pot + sherd (“shard”).
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.