sheepdog
"sheepdog" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sheepdog” is uncommon English (frequency #56,431 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #56,431
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Any of various breeds of dog used for herding sheep; an individual of such a breed.
Corpus desk
Index EN-sheepdog · sheepdog · English
sheepdog · rank #56,431 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #56,431
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH Shivaji
Nearest frequency peer: Shivaji (+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 “sheepdog”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- shagging
shagging
43,573 corpus weight
- shamanism
shamanism
43,572 corpus weight
- sheepdog
sheepdog
43,570 corpus weight
- Shivaji
Shivaji
43,569 corpus weight
- Shlomo
Shlomo
43,568 corpus weight
- Shoshone
Shoshone
43,567 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “sheepdog” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sheepdog |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #56,431 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sheepdog” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
sheepdog is uncommon English at frequency #56,431 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
sheepdog doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From sheep + dog. The correct English form is sheepdog, spelled S-H-E-E-P-D-O-G.
Definition
- 1Any of various breeds of dog used for herding sheep; an individual of such a breed.
- 2Any of various breeds of dog used for guarding sheep; an individual of such a breed.
- 3A chaperon; an adult who accompanies other people in a supervisory role.
- 4A police officer.
Etymology
From sheep + dog.
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); 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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "sheepdog", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
What to do next
You've looked up "sheepdog". Here's where to go from here.
- Usage frequency rank #56,431 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.