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shore

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

5 characters

Language

English

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "shore", 5-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 "shore" 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 "shore" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

shore is aEnglishnoun. It means: Land adjoining a non-flowing body of water, such as an ocean, lake or pond. Pronounced /ʃɔː/. It ranks #4,122 in English word frequency. Often confused with soe and sor.

Key facts for shore
PropertyValue
Headwordshore
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ʃɔː/
Letters5
Frequency rank#4,122
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of shore in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for shore is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ʃɔː/. Corpus data places it at rank #4,122 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for shore, with forms such as "hsore", "shhore", and "shoer". 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, "soe", "sor", "some", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English schore, from Old English *sċora (attested as sċor- in placenames), from Proto-Germanic *skurô (“rugged rock, cliff, high rocky shore”). Possibly related to Old English sċieran (“to cut”), which survives today as English shear. Cognate wi… 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 shore, spelled S-H-O-R-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Land adjoining a non-flowing body of water, such as an ocean, lake or pond.
  2. 2
    Land, usually near a port.

Etymology

From Middle English schore, from Old English *sċora (attested as sċor- in placenames), from Proto-Germanic *skurô (“rugged rock, cliff, high rocky shore”). Possibly related to Old English sċieran (“to cut”), which survives today as English shear. Cognate with Middle Dutch scorre (“land washed by the sea”), Middle Low German schor (“shore, coast, headland”), Middle High German schorre ("rocky crag, high rocky shore"; > German Schorre, Schorren (“towering rock, crag”)), and Limburgish sjaor (“riverbank”). Maybe connected with Norwegian Bokmål skjær.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: hsore,shhore,shoer,shorre,shroe,sohre,sshore

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for shore

Misspelling Variants of "shore"

hsore5shhore6shoer5shorre6shroe5sohre5sshore6
Misspelling Variants of "shore"

Frequency rank: #4,122 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "shore"?
"shore" is spelled S-H-O-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is /ʃɔː/.
What does "shore" mean?
As a noun, "shore" means: Land adjoining a non-flowing body of water, such as an ocean, lake or pond.
What words are commonly confused with "shore"?
"shore" is commonly confused with "soe", "sor", "some". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "shore"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "shore" is /ʃɔː/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "shore"?
From Middle English schore, from Old English *sċora (attested as sċor- in placenames), from Proto-Germanic *skurô (“rugged rock, cliff, high rocky shore”). Possibly related to Old English sċieran (“to cut”), which survives today as English shear. ... 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.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter S in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.