shoe
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "shoe", 4-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 "shoe" 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 "shoe" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
shoe is aEnglishnoun. It 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 made of leather or synthetic material. Shoes gener... Pronounced /ˈʃuː/. It ranks #4,796 in English word frequency. Often confused with so and son.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | shoe |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈʃuː/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #4,796 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for shoe is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈʃuː/. Corpus data places it at rank #4,796 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 18 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 5 documented wrong-spelling variants for shoe, with forms such as "hsoe", "sheo", and "shhoe". 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, "so", "son", "sue", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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 qui… 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 shoe, spelled S-H-O-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A 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.
- 2A piece of metal designed to be attached to a horse's foot as a means of protection; a horseshoe.
- 3A device for holding multiple decks of playing cards, allowing more games to be played by reducing the time between shuffles.
- 4Something resembling a shoe in form, position, or function, such as a brake shoe.
- 5Something resembling a shoe in form, position, or function, such as a brake shoe.
- 6Something resembling a shoe in form, position, or function, such as a brake shoe.
- 7Something resembling a shoe in form, position, or function, such as a brake shoe.
- 8Something resembling a shoe in form, position, or function, such as a brake shoe.
- 9Something resembling a shoe in form, position, or function, such as a brake shoe.
- 10Something resembling a shoe in form, position, or function, such as a brake shoe.
- 11Something resembling a shoe in form, position, or function, such as a brake shoe.
- 12Something resembling a shoe in form, position, or function, such as a brake shoe.
- 13Something resembling a shoe in form, position, or function, such as a brake shoe.
- 14Something resembling a shoe in form, position, or function, such as a brake shoe.
- 15Something resembling a shoe in form, position, or function, such as a brake shoe.
- 16The outer cover or tread of a pneumatic tire, especially for an automobile.
- 17A pneumatic tire, especially for an automobile.
- 18A fake passport.
Etymology
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”). Eclipsed non-native Middle English sabatine, sabatoun (“shoe”) from Medieval Latin sabatēnum, sabatum (“shoe, slipper”) (compare Old Occitan sabatō, Spanish zapato (“shoe”), French sabot (“wooden shoe, clog”), Italian ciabatta). The archaic plural shoon is from Middle English shon, from Old English scōn, scōum (“shoes”, dative plural) and scōna (“shoes'”, genitive plural); it is cognate with Scots shuin (“shoes”). See also Scots shae, West Frisian skoech, Low German Schoh, Dutch schoen, German Schuh, Bavarian Schuach, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish sko, Tocharian B skāk (“balcony”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hsoe,sheo,shhoe,sohe,sshoe
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for shoe
Misspelling Variants of "shoe"
Frequency rank: #4,796 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter S in our English index: