# sheriff

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈʃɛɹɪf/ · frequency rank #5,550

## Definitions
1. (High Sheriff) An official of a shire or county office, responsible for carrying out court orders, law enforcement and other duties.
2. A judge in the sheriff court, the court of a county or sheriffdom.
3. A government official, usually responsible for law enforcement in their county and for administration of the county jail, sometimes an officer of the court, usually elected.

## Etymology
Inherited from Middle English shirreve, in turn inherited from Old English sċīrġerēfa, corresponding to shire + reeve. There is no etymological connection to Sharif (Arabic شَرِيف (šarīf)), an Arabic title of honour with cognates in other languages, including Persian, Punjabi, Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, Turkish, Spanish, Portuguese, etc.

## Easily confused with
- **serif** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/serif-vs-sheriff)
- **sharif** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sharif-vs-sheriff)

## Common misspellings (9)
`hseriff`, `sehriff`, `sheirff`, `sherfif`, `sherif`, `sherriff`, `shheriff`, `shreiff`, `ssheriff`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/sheriff