shire
/ʃaɪ(ə)ɹ/noun, verb
shire is spelled S-H-I-R-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 3.0 times per million words in written English, the 15,613th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, shire means “An administrative area or district between about the 5th to the 11th century, subdivided into hundreds or wapentakes and jointly governed by an…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of shire is shires.
How many letters and syllables are in shire?
| Letters | 5: S-H-I-R-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.0 times per million words; the 15,613th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is shire?
Shire appears 3.0 times per million words in written English, the 15,613th 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 shire?
- UK /ʃaɪə/
- US /ʃaɪ(ə)ɹ/
Shire has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-shire.wav, En-us-shire.oga, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with shire?
11 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as shire from its last stressed vowel (/aɪɹ/):
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 shire
- shires plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- shiring participle, present
- shired participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does shire mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
UKAn administrative area or district between about the 5th to the 11th century, subdivided into hundreds or wapentakes and jointly governed by an ealdorman and a sheriff; also, a present-day area corresponding to such a historical district; a county; especially (England), a county having a name ending in -shire.
Yorkshire is the largest shire in England.
- 2
UKThe people living in a shire (noun sense 1.1) considered collectively.
- 3
UKinformalThe general area in which a person comes from or lives.
When are you coming back to the shire?
- 4
An administrative area or district in other countries.
- 5
AustraliaAn outer suburban or rural local government area which elects its own council.
- 6
Ellipsis of shire horse (“a draught horse of a tall British breed, usually bay, black, or grey”).
- 7
obsoleteA district or province governed by a person; specifically (Christianity), the province of an archbishop, the see of a bishop, etc.
- 8
obsoleteA region; also, a country.
verb
- 1
To constitute or reconstitute (a country or region) into one or more shires (noun sense 1.1) or counties.
County Longford was shired in 1586.
noun
- 1
A breed of draught horse; an individual of this breed.
The Shire was a favorite on this estate.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Shire in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense administrative area or district subdivided into hundreds or wapentakes and joint:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | comté |
| German | Grafschaft |
| Portuguese | condado |
| Spanish | condado, comarca |
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 shire come from?
The noun is derived from Middle English schire (“region, shire, county”) [and other forms], from Old English sċīr (“administrative region under an alderman and sheriff, shire; district under a governor or official; status of an official, office”) [and other forms], from Proto-West Germanic *skīru (“district; status of an official, office”); further etymology uncertain, possibly related to Latin cūra (“care, concern; administration, charge, management; command, office”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kʷeys- (“to heed; to see”). The verb is derived from the noun.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).