schmear
/ʃmɪə(ɹ)/noun, verb
schmear is spelled S-C-H-M-E-A-R: 7 letters. It appears about once in every 49 million words in written English, the 217,360th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, schmear means “A spread that goes on a bagel” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of schmear is schmears.
How many letters and syllables are in schmear?
| Letters | 7: S-C-H-M-E-A-R |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 49 million words; the 217,360th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is schmear?
Schmear appears about once in every 49 million words in written English, the 217,360th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce schmear?
- /ʃmɪə(ɹ)/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-schmear.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of schmear
- schmears plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- shmear
- schmeer
- shmeer
- schmearing participle, present
- schmeared participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does schmear mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A spread that goes on a bagel.
- 2
A batch of things that go together.
- 3
An aggregate.
verb
- 1
To spread something, often a bagel spread.
- 2
slangTo bribe.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does schmear come from?
Borrowed from Yiddish שמיר (shmir, “smear, spread”); compare German schmieren. Doublet of smear, smearcase. By surface analysis, schm- + smear. The sense “bribe” is from Yiddish שמירן (shmirn, “to smear, to bribe”), senses found also in German schmieren. The implication is that a bribe helps “lubricate” an interaction.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).