shew
/ʃoʊ/
"shew" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“shew” is uncommon English (frequency #55,733 among 54,294 “S” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #55,733
- frequency rank, English
- 54,294
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Archaic spelling of show.
Corpus desk
Index EN-shew · shew · English
shew · rank #55,733 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #55,733
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 54,294
- PHOTO-FINISH shand
Nearest frequency peer: shand (-2 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 “shew”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- sensational…
sensationalist
44,275 corpus weight
- shand
shand
44,270 corpus weight
- shew
shew
44,268 corpus weight
- sidearm
sidearm
44,265 corpus weight
- signpost
signpost
44,264 corpus weight
- Sinhala
Sinhala
44,263 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “shew” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | shew |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ʃoʊ/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #55,733 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “shew” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
shew is uncommon English at frequency #55,733 among 54,294 “S” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed /ʃoʊ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Archaic spelling of show.".
No misspelling variants are generated for shew in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is shew, spelled S-H-E-W.
Definition
- 1Archaic spelling of show.
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 May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "shew", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
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.