# shale

> English word · Noun · IPA /ʃeɪl/ · frequency rank #11,460

## Definitions
1. A shell, scale or husk; a cod or pod.
2. A fine-grained sedimentary rock of a thin, laminated, and often friable, structure.

## Etymology
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”).
See also West Frisian skaal (“dish”), Dutch schaal (“shell”), schalie (“shale”), German Schale (“husk, pod”); also Lithuanian skalà (“splinter”), Old Church Slavonic скала (skala, “rock, stone”), Polish skała (“rock”), Albanian halë (“fish bone, splinter”), Sanskrit कल (kalá, “small part”); also Hittite [script needed] (iškalla, “to tear apart, slit open”), Lithuanian skélti (“to split”), Ancient Greek σκάλλω (skállō, “to hoe, harrow”). Doublet of scale. See also shell.

## Easily confused with
- **she** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shale-vs-she)
- **SLE** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shale-vs-sle)
- **sole** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shale-vs-sole)
- **shoe** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shale-vs-shoe)
- **shaw** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shale-vs-shaw)
- **sham** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shale-vs-sham)
- **shan** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shale-vs-shan)
- **shay** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shale-vs-shay)
- **shat** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shale-vs-shat)
- **state** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shale-vs-state)
- **small** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shale-vs-small)
- **space** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shale-vs-space)
- **share** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shale-vs-share)
- **style** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shale-vs-style)
- **stage** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shale-vs-stage)
- **shall** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shale-vs-shall)
- **shape** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shale-vs-shape)
- **smile** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shale-vs-smile)
- **shame** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shale-vs-shame)
- **sharp** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shale-vs-sharp)

## Common misspellings (7)
`hsale`, `sahle`, `shael`, `shalle`, `shhale`, `shlae`, `sshale`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/shale