shotgun
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
7 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "shotgun", 7-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Wiktionary, and usage frequency ranked against an open word-frequency list covering the top 100,000 English words. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "shotgun" 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 "shotgun" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
shotgun is aEnglishnoun. It means: A gun which fires loads typically consisting of small metal balls, called shot, from a cartridge. Pronounced /ˈʃɒtɡʌn/. It ranks #9,537 in English word frequency. Often confused with shogun.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | shotgun |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈʃɒtɡʌn/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #9,537 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for shotgun is 7 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈʃɒtɡʌn/. Corpus data places it at rank #9,537 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for shotgun, with forms such as "hsotgun", "shhotgun", and "shogtun". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "shogun", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From shot + gun. Front passenger seat sense comes from ride shotgun. 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 shotgun, spelled S-H-O-T-G-U-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A gun which fires loads typically consisting of small metal balls, called shot, from a cartridge.
- 2The front passenger seat in a vehicle, next to the driver; so called because the position of the shotgun-armed guard on a horse-drawn stage-coach, wagon train, or gold transport was next to the driver on a forward-mounted bench seat. Can also be used in situations of claiming other resources such as bedrooms.
- 3A one-story dwelling with no hallways or corridors, with the rooms arranged in a straight line.
- 4An offensive formation in which the quarterback receives the snap at a distance behind the center, often with a running back set to one or both sides of him.
- 5Relating to shotguns, either in a present or past sense.
- 6Relating to the threat of force or dubious means.
- 7Relating to the use of numerous, diverse or indiscriminate means to achieve a particular result.
Etymology
From shot + gun. Front passenger seat sense comes from ride shotgun.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hsotgun,shhotgun,shogtun,shotggun,shotgnu,shotgunn,shottgun,shotugn,shtogun,sohtgun,sshotgun
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for shotgun
Misspelling Variants of "shotgun"
Frequency rank: #9,537 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter S in our English index: