shade
/ʃeɪd/
"shade" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“shade” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #5,548 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #5,548
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Darkness where light, particularly sunlight, is blocked.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | shade |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ʃeɪd/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #5,548 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “shade” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for shade is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ʃeɪd/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,548 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 11 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for shade, with forms such as "hsade", "sahde", and "shadde". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "she", "side", "shoe", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English schade, from Old English sċeadu, sċadu (“shadow; shade”), from Proto-West Germanic *skadu, from Proto-Germanic *skadwaz (“shadow”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱeh₃- (“darkness, shadow”). Cognates Cognate with Scots shedda (“shadow”), S… The correct English form is shade, spelled S-H-A-D-E.
Definition
- 1Darkness where light, particularly sunlight, is blocked.
- 2Something that blocks light, particularly in a window.
- 3A variety of a color, in particular one obtained by adding black (compare tint).
- 4A subtle variation in a concept.
- 5An aspect that is reminiscent of something.
- 6A very small degree of a quantity, or variety of meaning
- 7A ghost or specter; a spirit.
- 8A postage stamp showing an obvious difference in colour/color to the original printing and needing a separate catalogue/catalog entry.
- 9Subtle insults.
- 10A cover around or above a light bulb, a lampshade.
- 11A candle-shade.
Etymology
From Middle English schade, from Old English sċeadu, sċadu (“shadow; shade”), from Proto-West Germanic *skadu, from Proto-Germanic *skadwaz (“shadow”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱeh₃- (“darkness, shadow”). Cognates Cognate with Scots shedda (“shadow”), Saterland Frisian Skaad, Skade (“shade, shadow”), West Frisian skaad, skâd (“shade, shadow”), Central Franconian and Limburgish Schatte (“shadow”), Dutch schade, schaduw (“shadow”), German Schatten (“shade, shadow”), German Low German Scharr, Scharre (“shade, shadow”), Luxembourgish Schiet (“shade, shadow”), Vilamovian siota (“shadow”), Yiddish שאָטן (shotn, “shadow”), Faroese skadda (“thick wet mountain fog”), Icelandic skodda, skoddi (“shadow”), Norwegian Bokmål skodde (“fog, mist”), Norwegian Nynorsk skodde, skåddj, skåidd (“fog; ice fog”), Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌳𐌿𐍃 (skadus, “shadow”); also Breton skeud (“shadow; reflection; ghost”), Cornish skeus (“shadow; reflection”), Irish scáth (“shadow”), Manx scaa, skæ (“shield; shade, shadow”), Scottish Gaelic sgàth (“shade, shadow”), Latin obscurus (“dark, dusky, shadowy”), Ancient Greek σκότος (skótos, “darkness, gloom”) (whence English scoto-), Belarusian сівы́ (sivý, “grey”), Czech and Slovak sivý (“grey”), Macedonian осој (osoj, “shady place”), Polish siwy (“grey”), Russian си́вый (sívyj, “grey”), Serbo-Croatian сив, siv (“grey”), Slovene osoja (“shady place”), Ukrainian си́вий (sývyj, “grey”), Armenian սեաւ (seaw), սեւ (sew, “black”), Ossetian сау (saw, “black”), Persian سه (sah), سیه (siyah), سیاه (siyâh, “black”), Sanskrit श्याम (śyāma, “black”), श्याव (śyāva, “dark”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hsade,sahde,shadde,shaed,shdae,shhade,sshade
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of shade - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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
How do you spell "shade"?
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Using “shade”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-H-A-D-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ʃeɪd/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “she” - see the side-by-side comparison. shade vs she
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.