# Sherlock

> English word · Proper noun · IPA /ˈʃɜɹ.lɒk/ · frequency rank #10,766

## Definitions
1. An English surname transferred from the nickname.
2. A male given name transferred from the surname, of rare usage.
3. A detective, especially used sarcastically to address somebody who has stated the obvious.

## Etymology
Supposedly from an Old English scir-locc (“bright-lock”).
One of a group of surnames originally denoting hair colour, parallel to Blacklock, Harlock (Old English har (“grey”)), Silverlock.
In the sense of “a detective”, from Sherlock Holmes.
In the computing verb sense, refers to the software Sherlock, which in 2002 came to replicate some of the features of an earlier complementary program called Watson.

## Common misspellings (13)
`hserlock`, `sehrlock`, `shelrock`, `sherlcok`, `sherllock`, `sherlocck`, `sherlockk`, `sherlokc`, `sherolck`, `sherrlock`, `shherlock`, `shrelock`, `ssherlock`

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