shale
/ʃeɪl/noun, verb
shale is spelled S-H-A-L-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 4.9 times per million words in written English, the 11,373rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, shale means “A shell, scale or husk; a cod or pod” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of shale is shales.
How many letters and syllables are in shale?
| Letters | 5: S-H-A-L-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 4.9 times per million words; the 11,373rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is shale?
Shale appears 4.9 times per million words in written English, the 11,373rd 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 shale?
- /ʃeɪl/
Shale has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-shale.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with shale?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as shale.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: leash, selah, halse.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of shale
- shales plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- shaling participle, present
- shaled participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does shale mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A shell, scale or husk; a cod or pod.
- 2
A fine-grained sedimentary rock of a thin, laminated, and often friable, structure.
- 3
The shale oil and shale gas segment of the oil and gas industry.
verb
- 1
To take off the shell or coat of.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Shale in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| Spanish | cáscara, vaina , esquisto, pizarra, lutita |
| French | schiste , écoquiller, décoquiller, écaler, décortiquer |
| German | Tonstein, Ölschiefer, Schieferton, Schiefergestein, Bitumenschiefer, Schwarzschiefer |
| Portuguese | folhelho |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does shale come from?
From Middle English schale (“shell, husk; scale”), from Old English sċealu (“shell, husk, pod”), from Proto-West Germanic *skalu, from Proto-Germanic *skalō, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“to split, cut”), from *(s)kel- (“to split, cleave”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).