ship fever

noun

"ship-fever" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“ship fever” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
10
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A form of typhus fever.

Corpus desk

Index EN-ship-fever · ship fever · English

ship fever · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "S" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for ship fever
PropertyValue
Headwordship fever
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters10
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “ship fever” in English

ship feversits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

ship fever is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A form of typhus fever.".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for ship fever, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

Etymologically, the entry records: It was once common in the crowded conditions on ships. The correct English form is ship fever, spelled S-H-I-P- -F-E-V-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    A form of typhus fever.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how ship fever appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. "No fear of scurvy or ship fever this voyage. What with the ship's surgeon and this other doctor, our only danger will be from drug or pill."

Etymology

It was once common in the crowded conditions on ships.

Synonyms

hospital feverjail feverputrid fever

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "ship fever"?
"ship fever" is spelled S-H-I-P- -F-E-V-E-R.
What does "ship fever" mean?
As a noun, "ship fever" means: A form of typhus fever.
What is the origin of the word "ship fever"?
It was once common in the crowded conditions on ships. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list