shed
/ʃɛd/
"shed" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“shed” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #4,894 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #4,894
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To part, separate or divide.
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 | shed |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ʃɛd/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #4,894 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “shed” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for shed is 4 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ʃɛd/. Corpus data places it at rank #4,894 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 9 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 shed, with forms such as "hsed", "sehd", and "shde". 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, "sue", "shy", "Sid", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English scheden, schede, from Old English scēadan, scādan (“to separate, divide, part, make a line of separation between; remove from association or companionship; distinguish, discriminate, decide, determine, appoint; shatter, shed; expound; de… The correct English form is shed, spelled S-H-E-D.
Definition
- 1To part, separate or divide.
- 2To part with, separate from, leave off; cast off, cast, let fall, be divested of.
- 3To pour; to make flow.
- 4To allow to flow or fall.
- 5To radiate, cast, give off (light).
- 6To pour forth, give off, impart.
- 7To fall in drops; to pour.
- 8To sprinkle; to intersperse; to cover.
- 9To divide, as the warp threads, so as to form a shed, or passageway, for the shuttle.
Etymology
From Middle English scheden, schede, from Old English scēadan, scādan (“to separate, divide, part, make a line of separation between; remove from association or companionship; distinguish, discriminate, decide, determine, appoint; shatter, shed; expound; decree; write down; differ”), from Proto-West Germanic *skaiþan, from Proto-Germanic *skaiþaną (compare West Frisian skiede, Dutch and German scheiden), from Proto-Indo-European *skeyt- (“to cut, part, divide, separate”), from *skey-. See also Irish scian (“knife”), Lithuanian skėsti (“to spread”), ski̇́esti (“to separate”), Old Church Slavonic цѣдити (cěditi, “to filter, strain”), Ancient Greek σχίζω (skhízō, “to split”), Old Armenian ցտեմ (cʻtem, “to scratch”), Sanskrit च्यति (cyáti, “he cuts off”)). Related to shoad, shit, sheath.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hsed,sehd,shde,shedd,shhed,sshed
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of shed - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 “shed”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-H-E-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ʃɛd/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “sue” - see the side-by-side comparison. shed vs sue
- 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.