shoot from the hip
"shoot-from-the-hip" is a 15-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“shoot from the hip” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 18
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To discharge a firearm while it is held near the hip, without taking time to aim via the gunsights.
Corpus desk
Index EN-shoot-from-the-hip · shoot from the hip · English
shoot from the hip · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 18 letters
- VOW-5 5 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | shoot from the hip |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 18 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “shoot from the hip” in English
Rare enough to double-check
shoot from the hip is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
shoot from the hip has no tracked misspelling variants, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is shoot from the hip, spelled S-H-O-O-T- -F-R-O-M- -T-H-E- -H-I-P.
Definition
- 1To discharge a firearm while it is held near the hip, without taking time to aim via the gunsights.
- 2To speak or act quickly based on first impressions, without carefully studying the background information, wider context, etc.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how shoot from the hip appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
“As to their rifle fire, it was useless.” “They shoot from the hip, and don’t seem to aim at anything in particular.”
Trump is shooting from the hip, spraying insults 360 degrees, telling lies, stoking fears and making threats that many in our military and the F.B.I. would refuse to implement.
Synonyms
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.