shamus
/ˈʃɑːməs/
"shamus" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“shamus” is uncommon English (frequency #63,245 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #63,245
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A private detective; originally, a policeman or police detective.
Corpus desk
Index EN-shamus · shamus · English
shamus · rank #63,245 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #63,245
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH shemales
Nearest frequency peer: shemales (+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.
Long-tail ranks near “shamus”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- septal
septal
36,762 corpus weight
- serially
serially
36,761 corpus weight
- shamus
shamus
36,756 corpus weight
- shemales
shemales
36,755 corpus weight
- Sherrill
Sherrill
36,754 corpus weight
- shoelace
shoelace
36,753 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “shamus” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| 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) |
Long-tail rank of “shamus” in English
Rare enough to double-check
shamus is uncommon English at frequency #63,245 among 6,566 “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.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how shamus appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
“That's what you're here for. Didn't your aunt tell you? She wants you to follow Wilbert Cream and Phyllis about everywhere and see that he doesn't get a chance of proposing.” “You mean that I'm to be a sort of private eye or shamus, tailing them up? I don't like it,” I said dubiously.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "shamus", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).