shabu
"shabu" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“shabu” is uncommon English (frequency #84,738 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #84,738
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Methedrine; methamphetamine.
Corpus desk
Index EN-shabu · shabu · English
shabu · rank #84,738 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #84,738
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH shampooing
Nearest frequency peer: shampooing (+1 rank slots)
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.
Long-tail ranks near “shabu”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- selloff
selloff
15,271 corpus weight
- semiannual
semiannual
15,270 corpus weight
- sepoy
sepoy
15,267 corpus weight
- shabu
shabu
15,263 corpus weight
- shampooing
shampooing
15,262 corpus weight
- shuriken
shuriken
15,254 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “shabu” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | shabu |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #84,738 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “shabu” in English
Rare enough to double-check
shabu is uncommon English at frequency #84,738 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Methedrine; methamphetamine.".
shabu has no tracked misspelling variants, 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 its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: Probably from Japanese シャブ (“stimulant: amphetamine, methamphetamine”), in turn possibly from the verb しゃぶる (shaburu, “to suck on something”), from the way that the addictiveness of the drugs sucks in the user. The correct English form is shabu, spelled S-H-A-B-U.
Definition
- 1Methedrine; methamphetamine.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how shabu appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
[…] burning or hammer-smashing of confiscated paraphernalia, however these be illegal — such as marijuana, plastic bags of shabu, pinball machines, video arcade equipment — since such acts of showmanship only lend themselves to media […]
[…] some P6.4 billion worth of methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu was slipped passed the BOC through its automated classification system.
Etymology
Probably from Japanese シャブ (“stimulant: amphetamine, methamphetamine”), in turn possibly from the verb しゃぶる (shaburu, “to suck on something”), from the way that the addictiveness of the drugs sucks in the user.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "shabu", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).