shield
/ˈʃild/noun, verb
shield is spelled S-H-I-E-L-D. The wrong spelling people search most is sheild: about 2,010 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Shield is a noun meaning “A broad piece of defensive armor, held in hand, formerly in general use in war, for the protection of the body”. The plural of shield is shields.
How many letters and syllables are in shield?
| Letters | 6: S-H-I-E-L-D |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 |
| In writing | 20 times per million words; the 4,302nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, sheild, about 2,010 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell shield?
Shield is spelled S-H-I-E-L-D. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 10 of the searches for shield in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is shield?
Shield appears 20 times per million words in written English, the 4,302nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce shield?
- UK /ˈʃiːld/
- British /ˈʃɪj(ə)ld/
- US /ˈʃild/
Shield has one syllable.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-shield.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with shield?
One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as shield from its last stressed vowel (/ild/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: delish.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of shield
- shields plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- shielding participle, present
- shielded participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does shield mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A broad piece of defensive armor, held in hand, formerly in general use in war, for the protection of the body.
- 2
One who protects or defends.
- 3
A featherless, flat, fleshy protuberance on the head; a frontal shield.
- 4
A flattish patch of iridescent feathers.
- 5
A heavily hardened, protective plate on an insect's exoskeleton that covers part of its body.
- 6
In lichens, a hardened cup or disk surrounded by a rim and containing the fructification, or asci.
- 7
A framework used to protect workmen in making an adit under ground, and capable of being pushed along as excavation progresses.
- 8
A field of energy that protects or defends.
verb
- 1
To protect, to defend.
Sunscreen shields against the harmful effects of solar rays.
- 2
UKTo shelter; to protect oneself.
- 3
To protect from the influence of.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Shield in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | bouclier, écu , protéger |
| German | Schild, Schilt , beschützen , Schutz |
| Portuguese | escudo , proteger |
| Spanish | escudo, chimal , proteger, blindar |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does shield come from?
From Middle English scheld, shelde, from Old English scield (“shield”), from Proto-West Germanic *skeldu, from Proto-Germanic *skelduz (“shield”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“cut, split”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).