shaw
/ʃɔː/
"shaw" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“shaw” has 6 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #6,296. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #6,296
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A thicket; a small wood or grove.
Corpus desk
Index EN-shaw · shaw · English
shaw · rank #6,296 · 6 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #6,296
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 6 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH shaking
Nearest frequency peer: shaking (-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 “shaw”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- rebel
rebel
93,710 corpus weight
- rotation
rotation
93,708 corpus weight
- separately
separately
93,707 corpus weight
- shaking
shaking
93,706 corpus weight
- shaw
shaw
93,705 corpus weight
- starring
starring
93,702 corpus weight
What this shows “shaw” 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 | 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) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “shaw”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 6 spelling variants around shaw (IPA /ʃɔː/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #6,296 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
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.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how shaw appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
All this herd sire Lamorak / and on the morne sir lamorak took his hors and rode vnto the forest / and there he mette with two knyghtes houynge vnder the wood shawe
Thenne said sire kay I requyre you lete vs preue this aduenture / I shal not fayle you said sir Gaherys / and soo they rode that tyme tyl a lake / that was that tyme called the peryllous lake / And there they abode vnder the shawe of the wood
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "shaw", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).