shibboleth
/ˈʃɪbəlɛθ/
"shibboleth" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“shibboleth” is uncommon English (frequency #95,407 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #95,407
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A particular pronunciation or custom that is regarded as distinguishing members of a group from non-members, especially when used as a test.
Corpus desk
Index EN-shibboleth · shibboleth · English
shibboleth · rank #95,407 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #95,407
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH Sheppey
Nearest frequency peer: Sheppey (-1 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 “shibboleth”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- shafter
shafter
4,599 corpus weight
- Sheppey
Sheppey
4,595 corpus weight
- shibboleth
shibboleth
4,594 corpus weight
- Shohei
Shohei
4,592 corpus weight
- sicario
sicario
4,590 corpus weight
- Sidcup
Sidcup
4,589 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “shibboleth” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | shibboleth |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈʃɪbəlɛθ/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #95,407 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “shibboleth” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
shibboleth is uncommon English at frequency #95,407 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈʃɪbəlɛθ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for shibboleth, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Learned borrowing from Biblical Hebrew שִׁבֹּלֶת /שיבולת (šibbṓleṯ, “ear [of wheat] or stream, torrent”). Doublet of sebboleth and Middle English sebolech, both from Late Latin sebboleth in the Vulgate. The correct English form is shibboleth, spelled S-H-I-B-B-O-L-E-T-H.
Definition
- 1A particular pronunciation or custom that is regarded as distinguishing members of a group from non-members, especially when used as a test.
- 2A common or longstanding belief, custom, or catchphrase associated with a particular group, especially one with little current meaning or truth.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how shibboleth appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
In recent times, the correct treatment of initial h in speech has come to be regarded as a kind of shibboleth of social position.
He also declares that "th" is the veritable English shibboleth. He advises those Germans who cannot pronounce the sound correctly to pronounce it like "d," the symbol which he regularly uses for "th" in his lessons.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Biblical Hebrew שִׁבֹּלֶת /שיבולת (šibbṓleṯ, “ear [of wheat] or stream, torrent”). Doublet of sebboleth and Middle English sebolech, both from Late Latin sebboleth in the Vulgate.
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 "shibboleth", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
What to do next
You've looked up "shibboleth". Here's where to go from here.
- Usage frequency rank #95,407 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "S" letter cohort. S–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.