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shoulders

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

Letters

9 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "shoulders", 9-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 "shoulders" 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 "shoulders" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

shoulders is aEnglishnoun. It means: plural of shoulder Pronounced /ˈʃoʊldɚz/. It ranks #5,362 in English word frequency. Often confused with shoulder and shouldered.

Key facts for shoulders
PropertyValue
Headwordshoulders
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈʃoʊldɚz/
Letters9
Frequency rank#5,362
Misspellings tracked14
Confusable pairs2
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for shoulders is 9 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈʃoʊldɚz/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,362 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 14 documented wrong-spelling variants for shoulders, with forms such as "hsoulders", "shhoulders", and "sholuders". 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 2 confusable-pair relationships, "shoulder", "shouldered", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is shoulders, spelled S-H-O-U-L-D-E-R-S, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    plural of shoulder
  2. 2
    The two shoulders and the upper portion of the back.
  3. 3
    Capacity for bearing a task or blame.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: hsoulders,shhoulders,sholuders,shoudlers,shouldders,shoulderrs,shoulderss,shouldesr,shouldres,shouledrs,shoullders,shuolders,sohulders,sshoulders

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for shoulders

Misspelling Variants of "shoulders"

hsoulders9shhoulders10sholuders9shoudlers9shouldders10shoulderrs10shoulderss10shouldesr9
Misspelling Variants of "shoulders"

Frequency rank: #5,362 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "shoulders"?
"shoulders" is spelled S-H-O-U-L-D-E-R-S. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈʃoʊldɚz/.
What does "shoulders" mean?
As a noun, "shoulders" means: plural of shoulder
What words are commonly confused with "shoulders"?
"shoulders" is commonly confused with "shoulder", "shouldered". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "shoulders"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "shoulders" is /ˈʃoʊldɚz/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "shoulders" come from?
"shoulders" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.