Shangri-La
/ˌʃæŋɡɹɪˈlɑː/
"shangri-la" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Shangri-La” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A place or land of complete bliss, delight, and peace, especially one seen as an escape from ordinary life; a paradise.
Corpus desk
Index EN-shangri-la · Shangri-La · English
Shangri-La · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "S" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Shangri-La |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌʃæŋɡɹɪˈlɑː/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “Shangri-La” in English
Rare enough to double-check
Shangri-La is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˌʃæŋɡɹɪˈlɑː/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for Shangri-La, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: From a fictional place described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton (1900–1954): see the quotation below. A Tibetan origin has been suggested, from ཞང (zhang, “name of a district of Ü-Tsang”) + རི (ri, “mountain”) + ལ (la, “pass”)… The correct English form is Shangri-La, spelled S-H-A-N-G-R-I---L-A.
Definition
- 1A place or land of complete bliss, delight, and peace, especially one seen as an escape from ordinary life; a paradise.
- 2An opulent building or resort that provides entertainment or luxurious living.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how Shangri-La appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
He spoke a kind of Chinese that I don't understand very well, but I think he said something about a lamasery near here—along the valley, I gathered—where we could get food and shelter. Shangri-La, he called it. La is Tibetan for mountain-pass. He was most emphatic that we should go there.
The length of the journey gives a measure of the anachronism, which as [César] Vallejo said in one of his stories made the hill town a Shangri-La, forgotten by the rest of Peru.
Etymology
From a fictional place described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton (1900–1954): see the quotation below. A Tibetan origin has been suggested, from ཞང (zhang, “name of a district of Ü-Tsang”) + རི (ri, “mountain”) + ལ (la, “pass”), therefore meaning "Mountain Pass of Zhang District".
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.