sheave
/ʃiːv/
"sheave" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sheave” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A wheel having a groove in the rim for a rope to work in, and set in a block, mast, or similar; the wheel of a pulley.
Corpus desk
Index EN-sheave · sheave · English
sheave · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "S" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sheave |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ʃiːv/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “sheave” in English
Rare enough to double-check
sheave is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ʃiːv/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for sheave, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English, from a Germanic base akin to German Scheibe, late Old Norse skífa (“slice”), all ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to split”). For more see shive. The correct English form is sheave, spelled S-H-E-A-V-E.
Definition
- 1A wheel having a groove in the rim for a rope to work in, and set in a block, mast, or similar; the wheel of a pulley.
- 2A sliding scutcheon for covering a keyhole.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how sheave appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
To an exceptional degree the duties on these inclines have been passed on from father to son; many a boy has begun his working life in oiling the sheaves and, after passing through every grade, has reached the age of retirement in the responsible position of brakesman.
Etymology
From Middle English, from a Germanic base akin to German Scheibe, late Old Norse skífa (“slice”), all ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to split”). For more see shive.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.