shambling
/ˈʃæmblɪŋ/
"shambling" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“shambling” is uncommon English (frequency #85,764 among 54,294 “S” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #85,764
- frequency rank, English
- 54,294
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - present participle and gerund of shamble
Corpus desk
Index EN-shambling · shambling · English
shambling · rank #85,764 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #85,764
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 54,294
- PHOTO-FINISH sexualize
Nearest frequency peer: sexualize (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “shambling”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- serviceabil…
serviceability
14,240 corpus weight
- sexualize
sexualize
14,238 corpus weight
- shambling
shambling
14,237 corpus weight
- shanker
shanker
14,236 corpus weight
- Shelagh
Shelagh
14,235 corpus weight
- sherm
sherm
14,234 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “shambling” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | shambling |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈʃæmblɪŋ/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #85,764 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “shambling” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
shambling is uncommon English at frequency #85,764 among 54,294 “S” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed /ˈʃæmblɪŋ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "present participle and gerund of shamble".
No generated misspelling entries exist for shambling in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is shambling, spelled S-H-A-M-B-L-I-N-G.
Definition
- 1present participle and gerund of shamble
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "shambling", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
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.