sheer
/ˈʃɪə/
"sheer" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sheer” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #7,060. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #7,060
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Very thin or transparent.
Corpus desk
Index EN-sheer · sheer · English
sheer · rank #7,060 · 7 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #7,060
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 7 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH SEO
Nearest frequency peer: SEO (-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 “sheer”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- seller
seller
92,944 corpus weight
- sen
sen
92,943 corpus weight
- SEO
SEO
92,942 corpus weight
- sheer
sheer
92,941 corpus weight
- Simpson
Simpson
92,939 corpus weight
- smallest
smallest
92,938 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “sheer” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | sheer |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈʃɪə/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #7,060 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sheer” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 7 spelling variants around sheer (IPA /ˈʃɪə/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #7,060 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 5 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for sheer, with forms such as "hseer", "seher", and "sheerr". 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, "shoe", "Shen", "shep", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English shere, scheere, schere, skere, from Old English sċǣre (“pure, sheer; shining, clear”), from Proto-Germanic *skairiz; supplanted the semantically close shire (dialectal), from Middle English schyre, schire, shire, shir, from Old English s… The correct English form is sheer, spelled S-H-E-E-R.
Definition
- 1Very thin or transparent.
- 2Pure in composition; unmixed; unadulterated.
- 3Downright; complete; pure.
- 4Used to emphasize the amount or degree of something.
- 5Very steep; almost vertical or perpendicular.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how sheer appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Her light, sheer dress caught everyone’s attention.
“She sheathed her legs in the sheerest of the nylons that her father had brought back from the Continent, and slipped her feet into the toeless, high-heeled shoes of black suède.”
Etymology
From Middle English shere, scheere, schere, skere, from Old English sċǣre (“pure, sheer; shining, clear”), from Proto-Germanic *skairiz; supplanted the semantically close shire (dialectal), from Middle English schyre, schire, shire, shir, from Old English sċīr (“clear, bright; brilliant, gleaming, shining, splendid, resplendent; pure”), beside which existed Middle English skyr, from Old Norse skírr (“pure, bright, clear”), both from Proto-Germanic *skīriz (“pure, sheer”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱeh₁y- (“luster, gloss, shadow”). Cognate with Danish skær, German schier (“sheer”), German Low German schier (“sheer, pure, unadulterated”; “completely, almost”), Dutch schier (“almost”), Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌴𐌹𐍂𐍃 (skeirs, “clear, lucid”). Outside Germanic, cognate to Albanian hir (“grace, beauty; goodwill”).
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- hseer
- seher
- sheerr
- sher
- shere
- shheer
- ssheer
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sheer - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "sheer"?
What does "sheer" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "sheer"?
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What is the origin of the word "sheer"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "sheer", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "sheer". Here's where to go from here.
- "sheer" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "shoe". View pair
- 7 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #7,060 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.