shaw
/ʃɔː/
"shaw" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“shaw” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #6,296 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #6,296
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A thicket; a small wood or grove.
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 | shaw |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ʃɔː/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #6,296 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “shaw” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for shaw is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ʃɔː/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,296 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for shaw, with forms such as "hsaw", "sahw", and "shaww". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "SW", "she", "shy", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Old English sċeaga, scaga. Cognate with Old Norse skógr (“forest, wood”), whence Danish skov (“forest”). Doublet of scaw. The correct English form is shaw, spelled S-H-A-W.
Definition
- 1A thicket; a small wood or grove.
- 2The leaves and tops of vegetables, especially potatoes and turnips.
Etymology
From Old English sċeaga, scaga. Cognate with Old Norse skógr (“forest, wood”), whence Danish skov (“forest”). Doublet of scaw.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hsaw,sahw,shaww,shhaw,shwa,sshaw
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of shaw - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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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Using “shaw”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-H-A-W - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ʃɔː/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “SW” - see the side-by-side comparison. shaw vs SW
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.