sheepishly
/ˈʃiː.pɪʃ.li/
"sheepishly" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sheepishly” is uncommon English (frequency #53,849 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #53,849
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - In a sheepish way; shyly; meekly; bashfully; self-consciously; with embarrassment.
Corpus desk
Index EN-sheepishly · sheepishly · English
sheepishly · rank #53,849 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #53,849
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH serfdom
Nearest frequency peer: serfdom (-2 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.
Long-tail ranks near “sheepishly”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- segmental
segmental
46,157 corpus weight
- semiotics
semiotics
46,155 corpus weight
- serfdom
serfdom
46,154 corpus weight
- sheepishly
sheepishly
46,152 corpus weight
- Shipp
Shipp
46,150 corpus weight
- Shukla
Shukla
46,147 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “sheepishly” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sheepishly |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | /ˈʃiː.pɪʃ.li/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #53,849 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “sheepishly” in English
Rare enough to double-check
sheepishly is uncommon English at frequency #53,849 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anadverb, transcribed /ˈʃiː.pɪʃ.li/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "In a sheepish way; shyly; meekly; bashfully; self-consciously; with embarrassment.".
Zero misspellings are on record for sheepishly in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From sheepish + -ly. The correct English form is sheepishly, spelled S-H-E-E-P-I-S-H-L-Y.
Definition
- 1In a sheepish way; shyly; meekly; bashfully; self-consciously; with embarrassment.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how sheepishly appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
But Frank Fairbanks, a retired public administrator, had to sheepishly acknowledge that he had grass. “Unfortunately, like many of our central Phoenix neighbors, we have a green lawn which consumes more water than xeriscape,” he told the paper.
Renton’s big mistake is sheepishly to offer Sick Boy his stolen share 20 years on: £4,000 in a crumpled brown envelope. “What am I supposed to buy with that?” rages Sick Boy bitterly later. “A time machine?”
Etymology
From sheepish + -ly.
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 "sheepishly", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).