shelduck
shel·duck/ˈʃɛldʌk/noun
shelduck is spelled S-H-E-L-D-U-C-K: 8 letters and 2 syllables (shel·duck). It appears about once in every 46 million words in written English, the 209,386th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, shelduck means “Any of various waterfowl of the genus Tadorna, native to Eurasia, Africa and Australasia” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of shelduck is shelducks.
How many letters and syllables are in shelduck?
| Letters | 8: S-H-E-L-D-U-C-K |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: shel·duck |
| In writing | about once in every 46 million words; the 209,386th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is shelduck?
Shelduck appears about once in every 46 million words in written English, the 209,386th 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 shelduck?
- /ˈʃɛldʌk/
Shelduck has 2 syllables, split shel·duck in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Pvanp7-shelduck.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of shelduck
- shelducks plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does shelduck mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Any of various waterfowl of the genus Tadorna, native to Eurasia, Africa and Australasia.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Shelduck in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense waterfowl:
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 shelduck come from?
From obsolete/dialectal sheld (“variegated”) + duck. Compare typologically Russian пега́нка (pegánka) (< пе́гий (pégij)).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).