sheikh
/ʃeɪk/noun
sheikh is spelled S-H-E-I-K-H: 6 letters and one syllable. It appears 4.0 times per million words in written English, the 12,940th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “sheik vs sheikh” about 30 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, sheikh means “The leader of an Arab village, family or small tribe” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of sheikh is sheikhs.
How many letters and syllables are in sheikh?
| Letters | 6: S-H-E-I-K-H |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 4.0 times per million words; the 12,940th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How common is sheikh?
Sheikh appears 4.0 times per million words in written English, the 12,940th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce sheikh?
- /ʃeɪk/
- /ʃik/
Sheikh has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_(NaomiAmethyst)-sheik.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with sheikh
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: shake (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: sheik.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of sheikh
- sheikhs plural
- sheik
- shaykh
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does sheikh mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The leader of an Arab village, family or small tribe.
- 2
An Islamic religious cleric; the master of a Sufi order.
- 3
An official title for members of the royal family as well as some prominent families.
- 4
archaicslangA romantic lover.
- 5
slangAn Arab, especially one dressed in traditional clothing.
- 6
A member of one of the three hereditary, traditionally endogamous Yazidi castes, taking certain spiritual and leadership roles.
- 7
An honorific for specialists in spirituality, for example in Sufism.
noun
- 1
The title of a sheikh.
- 2
Alternative letter-case form of sheikh (Yazidi caste)
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Sheikh in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense leader of an Arab village, family or small tribe:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does sheikh come from?
From Arabic شَيْخ (šayḵ, “elder”). Sense 4 (“a romantic lover”) is from the 1921 film The Sheik.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).