shank
/ˈʃæŋk/
"shank" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“shank” has 8 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #26,596. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #26,596
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The part of the leg between the knee and the ankle.
Corpus desk
Index EN-shank · shank · English
shank · rank #26,596 · 8 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #26,596
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 8 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH seatbelt
Nearest frequency peer: seatbelt (-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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “shank”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- SCOTUS
SCOTUS
73,408 corpus weight
- scripting
scripting
73,407 corpus weight
- seatbelt
seatbelt
73,406 corpus weight
- shank
shank
73,405 corpus weight
- sharpened
sharpened
73,404 corpus weight
- shortlist
shortlist
73,403 corpus weight
What this shows “shank” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | shank |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈʃæŋk/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #26,596 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “shank”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 8 spelling variants around shank (IPA /ˈʃæŋk/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #26,596 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 19 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for shank, with forms such as "hsank", "sahnk", and "shakn". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "sink", "shaw", "span", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Inherited from Middle English schanke, from Old English sċanca (“leg”), from Proto-West Germanic *skankō, from Proto-Germanic *skankô (compare West Frisian skonk, Dutch schenkel, Low German Schanke, German Schenkel (“shank, leg”), Danish skank, Norwegian sk… The correct English form is shank, spelled S-H-A-N-K.
Definition
- 1The part of the leg between the knee and the ankle.
- 2Meat from that part of an animal.
- 3A redshank or greenshank, various species of Old World wading birds in the genus Tringa having distinctly colored legs.
- 4A straight, narrow part of an object, such as a key or an anchor; shaft; stem.
- 5The handle of a pair of shears, connecting the ride to the neck.
- 6The center part of a fishhook between the eye and the hook, the 'hook' being the curved part that bends toward the point.
- 7A protruding part of an object, by which it is or can be attached.
- 8The metal part on a curb bit that falls below the mouthpiece, which length controls the severity of the leverage action of the bit, and to which the reins of the bridle are attached.
- 9A poorly played golf shot in which the ball is struck by the part of the club head that connects to the shaft.
- 10The part of the sole beneath the instep connecting the broader front part with the heel.
- 11A metal strip strengthening the waists of shoes. (Also shankpiece.)
- 12An improvised stabbing weapon, originally in prison, possibly from the strips of metal in shoes.
- 13A loop forming an eye to a button.
- 14The space between two channels of the Doric triglyph.
- 15A large ladle for molten metal, fitted with long bars for handling it.
- 16The body of a type; between the shoulder and the foot.
- 17Flat-nosed pliers, used by opticians for nipping off the edges of pieces of glass to make them round.
- 18The end or remainder, particularly of a period of time.
- 19The main part or beginning of a period of time.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how shank appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Edward I of England was nicknamed Edward Longshanks.
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide / For his shrunk shank […]
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English schanke, from Old English sċanca (“leg”), from Proto-West Germanic *skankō, from Proto-Germanic *skankô (compare West Frisian skonk, Dutch schenkel, Low German Schanke, German Schenkel (“shank, leg”), Danish skank, Norwegian skank, Swedish skänkel), from *skankaz (compare Old Norse skakkr (“wry, crooked”)), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keng- (compare Middle Irish scingim (“I spring”), Ancient Greek σκάζω (skázō, “to limp”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- hsank
- sahnk
- shakn
- shankk
- shannk
- shhank
- shnak
- sshank
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of shank - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "shank", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).