pshaw
/ˈpʃɔː/
"pshaw" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pshaw” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an interjection. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 5
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Indicating disapproval, scoffery, irritation, impatience or disbelief.
Corpus desk
Index EN-pshaw · pshaw · English
pshaw · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- 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 | pshaw |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| IPA | /ˈpʃɔː/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “pshaw” in English
Rare enough to double-check
pshaw is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aninterjection, transcribed /ˈpʃɔː/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Indicating disapproval, scoffery, irritation, impatience or disbelief.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for pshaw, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is pshaw, spelled P-S-H-A-W.
Definition
- 1Indicating disapproval, scoffery, irritation, impatience or disbelief.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how pshaw appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Pshaw! I can't believe it!
"Pshaw! Why do ye bother yourself wid texts, man, about so small a matter?" interrupted the landlady
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.