shamus
/ˈʃɑːməs/
"shamus" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“shamus” is uncommon English (frequency #63,245 among 54,294 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #63,245
- frequency rank, English
- 54,294
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A private detective; originally, a policeman or police detective.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | shamus |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈʃɑːməs/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #63,245 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “shamus” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
shamus is uncommon English at frequency #63,245 among 54,294 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈʃɑːməs/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A private detective; originally, a policeman or police detective.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for shamus in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Said to be from the Irish name Séamus, on account of many American police officers being of Irish descent. The correct English form is shamus, spelled S-H-A-M-U-S.
Definition
- 1A private detective; originally, a policeman or police detective.
Etymology
Said to be from the Irish name Séamus, on account of many American police officers being of Irish descent.
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.
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Using “shamus”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-H-A-M-U-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈʃɑːməs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this 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.