shea
/ʃi/noun
shea is spelled S-H-E-A: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 2.4 times per million words in written English, the 17,587th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, shea means “A tree (Vitellaria paradoxa) indigenous to Africa, occurring in Mali, Cameroon, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Togo, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of shea is sheas.
How many letters and syllables are in shea?
| Letters | 4: S-H-E-A |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.4 times per million words; the 17,587th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is shea?
Shea appears 2.4 times per million words in written English, the 17,587th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce shea?
- /ʃi/
- /ʃeɪ/
- /ʃi.ə/
Shea has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-shea.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-shea2.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-shea3.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with shea?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as shea.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: ashe, seah.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of shea
- sheas plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does shea mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A tree (Vitellaria paradoxa) indigenous to Africa, occurring in Mali, Cameroon, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Togo, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, Burkina Faso and Uganda.
- 2
The fruit of this tree, having a thin, tart, nutritious pulp that surrounds a relatively large, oil-rich seed.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Shea in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense tree:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does shea come from?
Borrowed from Bambara si.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).