she

/ʃiː/

//ʃiː// pron

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"she" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“she” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #64) as a pronoun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#64
frequency rank, English
6,566
“S” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The female (typically) person or animal previously mentioned or implied.

Corpus desk

Index EN-she · she · English

she · rank #64 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #64
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,566
  • PHOTO-FINISH would

Nearest frequency peer: would (-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.

Frequency neighbourhood for “she”

Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “she” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

she vs so
33% similar
she vs SI
0% similar
she vs SS
0% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for she
PropertyValue
Headwordshe
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechPronoun
IPA/ʃiː/
Letters3
Frequency rank#64
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “she” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). she lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for she is neighbouring look-alikes ("so", "SI", …), not just typos; it is apronoun pronounced /ʃiː/. Frequency #64 among 6,566 “S” headwords. 5 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

she doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "so", "SI", "SS", 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 sche, scho, hyo, ȝho (“she”), whence also Yorkshire dialectal shoo (“she”), Scots she, sho (“she”). Probably from Old English hēo (whence dialectal English hoo), with an irregular change in stress from hēo to heō /hjoː/, then a… The correct English form is she, spelled S-H-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    The female (typically) person or animal previously mentioned or implied.
  2. 2
    A ship or boat.
  3. 3
    A country, or sometimes a city, province, planet, etc.
  4. 4
    A thing, especially a machine or other object, such as a car, a computer, or (poetically) a season.
  5. 5
    A person whose gender is unknown or irrelevant (used in a work, along with or in place of he, as an indefinite pronoun).

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how she appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. I asked Mary, but she said that she didn't know.
  2. After the cat killed a mouse, she left it on our doorstep.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English sche, scho, hyo, ȝho (“she”), whence also Yorkshire dialectal shoo (“she”), Scots she, sho (“she”). Probably from Old English hēo (whence dialectal English hoo), with an irregular change in stress from hēo to heō /hjoː/, then a development from /hj-/ to /ç/ to /ʃ-/, similar to the derivation of Shetland from Old Norse Hjaltland. In this case, she is from Proto-West Germanic *hiju, from Proto-Germanic *hijō f (“this, this one”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱe-, *ḱey- (“this, here”), and is cognate with Saterland Frisian jo, ju, West Frisian hja, North Frisian jü, Danish hun, Swedish hon; more at he. A derivation from Old English sēo (“that one”, occasionally “she”) is also possible, though less likely. In that case, sēo would have undergone a change in stress from sēo to seō /sjoː/, then a change from /sj-/ to /ʃ-/, similar to the derivation of sure from Old French seur. It would then be cognate to Dutch zij and German sie. Neither etymology would be expected to yield the modern vocalism in /iː/ (the expected form would be shoo, which is in fact found dialectally). It may be due to influence from he, but both hēo and sēo also have rare variants (hīe and sīe) that may give modern English /iː/.

This word in other languages

ella(Español)elle(Français)sie(Deutsch)ela(Português)

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.

PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "she"?
"she" is spelled S-H-E. The IPA pronunciation is /ʃiː/.
What does "she" mean?
As a pronoun, "she" means: The female (typically) person or animal previously mentioned or implied.
What words are commonly confused with "she"?
"she" is commonly confused with "so", "SI", "SS". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "she"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "she" is /ʃiː/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "she"?
Inherited from Middle English sche, scho, hyo, ȝho (“she”), whence also Yorkshire dialectal shoo (“she”), Scots she, sho (“she”). Probably from Old English hēo (whence dialectal English hoo), with an irregular change in stress from hēo to heō /hjo... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "she", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

new#65get#61how#67her#58

What to do next

You've looked up "she". Here's where to go from here.

  • "she" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "so". View pair
  • Usage frequency rank #64 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
  • Browse more English words in the "S" letter cohort. S–Z browse
  • PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list