shade
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
5 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "shade", 5-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 "shade" 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 "shade" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
shade is aEnglishnoun. It means: Darkness where light, particularly sunlight, is blocked. Pronounced /ʃeɪd/. It ranks #5,548 in English word frequency. Often confused with she and side.
| 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) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for shade is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, 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 Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for shade, with forms such as "hsade", "sahde", and "shadde". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "she", "side", "shoe", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
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… 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 shade, spelled S-H-A-D-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
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
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for shade
Misspelling Variants of "shade"
Frequency rank: #5,548 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "shade"?
What does "shade" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "shade"?
How do you pronounce "shade"?
What is the origin of the word "shade"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter S in our English index: