shiatsu
/ʃiːˈɑːt.suː/
"shiatsu" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“shiatsu” is uncommon English (frequency #77,193 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #77,193
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A form of massage, using the thumbs and palms, employed as therapy.
Corpus desk
Index EN-shiatsu · shiatsu · English
shiatsu · rank #77,193 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #77,193
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH sigs
Nearest frequency peer: sigs (+4 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.
Long-tail ranks near “shiatsu”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- seethe
seethe
22,814 corpus weight
- segregation…
segregationist
22,813 corpus weight
- shiatsu
shiatsu
22,808 corpus weight
- sigs
sigs
22,804 corpus weight
- Silesian
Silesian
22,803 corpus weight
- siltstone
siltstone
22,801 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “shiatsu” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | shiatsu |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ʃiːˈɑːt.suː/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #77,193 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “shiatsu” in English
Rare enough to double-check
shiatsu is uncommon English at frequency #77,193 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ʃiːˈɑːt.suː/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A form of massage, using the thumbs and palms, employed as therapy.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for shiatsu, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Japanese 指(し)圧(あつ) (shiatsu), from Middle Chinese 指 (MC tsyijX, “finger”) + 壓 (MC 'aep, “downward force”). The correct English form is shiatsu, spelled S-H-I-A-T-S-U.
Definition
- 1A form of massage, using the thumbs and palms, employed as therapy.
Etymology
Borrowed from Japanese 指(し)圧(あつ) (shiatsu), from Middle Chinese 指 (MC tsyijX, “finger”) + 壓 (MC 'aep, “downward force”).
This word in other languages
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "shiatsu", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).