shabby
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
6 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "shabby", 6-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "shabby" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "shabby" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
shabby is anEnglishadj. It means: Of clothing, a place, etc.: unkempt and worn or otherwise in poor condition due to age or neglect; scruffy. Pronounced /ˈʃæbi/. Often confused with shay and shady.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | shabby |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adj |
| IPA | /ˈʃæbi/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #20,222 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 8 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for shabby is 6 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈʃæbi/. Corpus data places it at rank #20,222 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 8 documented wrong-spelling variants for shabby, with forms such as "hsabby", "sahbby", and "shabbyy". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 8 confusable-pair relationships, "shay", "shady", "shaky", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: The adjective is derived from shab (“(obsolete except UK, dialectal) scaly skin disease; skin disease of sheep; crust forming over wound, scab”) + -y (suffix meaning ‘having the quality of’ forming adjectives). The verb is derived from the adjective. Cognat… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is shabby, spelled S-H-A-B-B-Y, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Of clothing, a place, etc.: unkempt and worn or otherwise in poor condition due to age or neglect; scruffy.
- 2Of a person: wearing ragged or very worn, and often dirty, clothing.
- 3Of a person, their behaviour, etc.: despicable, mean; also, not generous; stingy, tight-fisted.
- 4Poor in quality; also, showing little effort or talent.
- 5Poor in quality; also, showing little effort or talent.
- 6Poor in quality; also, showing little effort or talent.
- 7Poor in quality; also, showing little effort or talent.
Etymology
The adjective is derived from shab (“(obsolete except UK, dialectal) scaly skin disease; skin disease of sheep; crust forming over wound, scab”) + -y (suffix meaning ‘having the quality of’ forming adjectives). The verb is derived from the adjective. Cognates * Dutch schabbig (“poor, needy, shabby”) * Middle High German schebic (modern German schäbig (“shabby”)) * Middle Low German schabbich (“miserable”) (modern Low German schabbig, schäbbig) * Scots shabby (“in poor health, ill”) * Swedish sjabbig (“shabby, mangy, scruffy”), skabbig (“scabby”)
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hsabby,sahbby,shabbyy,shaby,shabyb,shbaby,shhabby,sshabby
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for shabby
Misspelling Variants of "shabby"
Frequency rank: #20,222 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter S in our English index: