shift
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
5 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "shift", 5-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "shift" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "shift" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
shift is aEnglishnoun. It means: A movement to do something, a beginning. Pronounced /ʃɪft/. It ranks #2,644 in English word frequency. Often confused with sit and Sif.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | shift |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ʃɪft/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #2,644 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for shift is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ʃɪft/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,644 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 21 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 8 documented wrong-spelling variants for shift, with forms such as "hsift", "shfit", and "shhift". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "sit", "Sif", "shit", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: The noun is from Middle English schyft, shyffte. Cognate with German Schicht (“layer, shift”). The verb is from Middle English schiften, from Old English sċiftan (“to divide, separate into shares; appoint, ordain; arrange, organise”), from Proto-Germanic *s… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is shift, spelled S-H-I-F-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A movement to do something, a beginning.
- 2An act of shifting; a slight movement or change.
- 3A share, a portion assigned on division.
- 4A type of women's undergarment of dress length worn under dresses or skirts, a slip or chemise.
- 5A simple straight-hanging, loose-fitting dress.
- 6A change of workers, now specifically a set group of workers or period of working time.
- 7The gear mechanism in a motor vehicle.
- 8Alternative spelling of Shift (“a modifier button of computer keyboards”).
- 9A control code or character used to change between different character sets.
- 10A control code or character used to change between different character sets.
- 11A bit shift.
- 12An infield shift.
- 13The act of kissing passionately.
- 14A contrivance, a device to try when other methods fail.
- 15A trick, an artifice.
- 16The extent, or arrangement, of the overlapping of plank, brick, stones, etc., that are placed in courses so as to break joints.
- 17A breaking off and dislocation of a seam; a fault.
- 18A mutation in which the DNA or RNA from two different sources (such as viruses or bacteria) combine.
- 19In violin-playing, any position of the left hand except that nearest the nut.
- 20A period of time in which one's consciousness resides in another reality, usually achieved through meditation or other means.
- 21be done; ruined
Etymology
The noun is from Middle English schyft, shyffte. Cognate with German Schicht (“layer, shift”). The verb is from Middle English schiften, from Old English sċiftan (“to divide, separate into shares; appoint, ordain; arrange, organise”), from Proto-Germanic *skiftijaną, *skiptijaną, from earlier *skipatjaną (“to organise, put in order”), from Proto-Indo-European *skeyb- (“to separate, divide, part”), from Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to cut, divide, separate, part”). Cognate with Scots schift, skift (“to shift”), West Frisian skifte, skiftsje (“to sort”), Dutch schiften (“to sort, screen, winnow, part”), German schichten (“to stack, layer”), Swedish skifta (“to shift, change, exchange, vary”), Norwegian skifte (“to shift”), Icelandic skipta (“to switch”). See ship.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hsift,shfit,shhift,shifft,shiftt,shitf,sihft,sshift
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for shift
Misspelling Variants of "shift"
Frequency rank: #2,644 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter S in our English index: