sheep
/ʃiːp/
"sheep" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sheep” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #5,264 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #5,264
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A woolly ruminant of the genus Ovis.
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 | sheep |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ʃiːp/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #5,264 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sheep” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for sheep is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ʃiːp/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,264 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 6 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 sheep, with forms such as "hseep", "sehep", and "sheepp". 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, "ship", "shop", "shoe", 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 schep, schepe, from Anglian Old English sċēp (West Saxon sċēap), from Proto-West Germanic *skāp, from Proto-Germanic *skēpą, of unknown origin. Perhaps from the same Scythian word (compare Ossetian цӕу (cæw, “goat”), Persian چپ… The correct English form is sheep, spelled S-H-E-E-P.
Definition
- 1A woolly ruminant of the genus Ovis.
- 2A member of the domestic species Ovis aries, the most well-known species of Ovis.
- 3A timid, shy person who is easily led by others.
- 4A religious adherent, a member of a congregation or religious community (compare flock).
- 5Sheepskin leather.
- 6A person who is easily understood by a speech recognition system; contrasted with goat.
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English schep, schepe, from Anglian Old English sċēp (West Saxon sċēap), from Proto-West Germanic *skāp, from Proto-Germanic *skēpą, of unknown origin. Perhaps from the same Scythian word (compare Ossetian цӕу (cæw, “goat”), Persian چپش (čapiš, “yearling goat”)) which was borrowed into Albanian as cjap, sqap (“buck”) and into Slavic (compare Polish cap). After Kroonen, *skēpą is instead from the root of Proto-Germanic *skabaną (“to scratch”) via Kluge's law. Cognates Cognate with Scots sheep (“sheep”), Yola sheep, zheep (“sheep”), North Frisian schep, schäip, Sjip (“sheep”), Saterland Frisian Schäip, Skäip (“sheep”), West Frisian skiep (“sheep”), Alemannic German Schaf, Schooff (“sheep”), Bavarian Schof, Schouf, Schåf (“sheep”), Dutch schaap (“sheep”), German Schaf (“sheep”), German Low German Schaap (“sheep”), Limburgish Schoëp, sjaop (“sheep”), Luxembourgish Schof (“sheep”), Vilamovian siöf (“sheep”), Yiddish שאָף (shof, “sheep”).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hseep,sehep,sheepp,shepe,shheep,ssheep
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sheep - 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
How do you spell "sheep"?
What does "sheep" mean?
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Using “sheep”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-H-E-E-P - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ʃiːp/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “ship” - see the side-by-side comparison. sheep vs ship
- 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.