shoe
/ˈʃu/noun, verb
shoe is spelled S-H-O-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 17 times per million words in written English, the 4,752nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, shoe means “A protective covering for the foot, with a bottom part composed of thick leather or plastic sole and often a thicker heel, and a softer upper part…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of shoe is shoes; Wiktionary also lists shoon (archaic), shoen (obsolete).
How many letters and syllables are in shoe?
| Letters | 4: S-H-O-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 17 times per million words; the 4,752nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
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 shoe?
Shoe appears 17 times per million words in written English, the 4,752nd 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 shoe?
- UK /ˈʃuː/
- US /ˈʃu/
Shoe 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: En-us-shoe.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with shoe
Sounds like: SHU, chou, shoo (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with shoe?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as shoe from its last stressed vowel (/u/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: hose.
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 shoe
- shoes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- shoeing participle, present
- shod past, participle
- shoed past, participle
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does shoe mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A protective covering for the foot, with a bottom part composed of thick leather or plastic sole and often a thicker heel, and a softer upper part made of leather or synthetic material. Shoes generally do not extend above the ankle, as opposed to boots, which do.
Get your shoes on now, or you'll be late for school.
- 2
A piece of metal designed to be attached to a horse's foot as a means of protection; a horseshoe.
Throw the shoe from behind the line, and try to get it to land circling (a ringer) or touching the far stake.
- 3
A device for holding multiple decks of playing cards, allowing more games to be played by reducing the time between shuffles.
- 4
Something resembling a shoe in form, position, or function, such as a brake shoe.
Remember to turn the rotors when replacing the brake shoes, or they will wear out unevenly.
- 5
A band of iron or steel, or a ship of wood, fastened to the bottom of the runner of a sleigh, or any vehicle which slides on the snow.
- 6
A drag, or sliding piece of wood or iron, placed under the wheel of a loaded vehicle, to retard its motion in going down a hill.
- 7
The part of a brake for a wheeled vehicle which presses upon the wheel to retard its motion.
- 8
A trough-shaped or spout-shaped member, put at the bottom of the water leader coming from the eaves gutter, so as to throw the water off from the building.
verb
- 1
To put shoes on one's own feet.
Men and women clothed and shod for the ascent.
- 2
To put shoes on someone or something else's feet, especially to put horseshoes on a horse.
- 3
To cover an object with a protective layer of material.
The billiard cue stick was shod in silver.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Shoe in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | chaussure, soulier , chausser , ferrer |
| German | Schuh, Lackschuh , beschlagen, beschuhen |
| Portuguese | calçado, sapato , calçar , ferrar , sapata |
| Spanish | zapato, taba , calzar , herrar , zapata |
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 shoe come from?
From Middle English scho, sho, from Old English sċōh (“shoe”), from Proto-West Germanic *skōh, from Proto-Germanic *skōhaz (“shoe”), of unclear etymology; possibly a derivation from *skehaną (“to move quickly”), from Proto-Indo-European *skek- (“to move quickly, jump”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).