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PlainSpell

shove

/ʃʌv/verb, noun

shove is spelled S-H-O-V-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 4.6 times per million words in written English, the 11,870th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, shove means “To push, especially roughly or with force” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in shove?

Letters5: S-H-O-V-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing4.6 times per million words; the 11,870th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is shove?

Shove appears 4.6 times per million words in written English, the 11,870th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce shove?

  • /ʃʌv/
  • /ʃʊv/

Shove has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-shove.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of shove

  • shoves present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • shoving participle, present
  • shoved past, participle

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does shove mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To push, especially roughly or with force.

  2. 2

    To move off or along by an act of pushing, as with an oar or pole used in a boat; sometimes with off.

  3. 3

    To make an all-in bet.

  4. 4

    slangTo pass (counterfeit money).

  5. 5

    To put hurriedly

noun

  1. 1

    A rough push.

  2. 2

    slangAn all-in bet.

  3. 3

    A forward movement of packed river-ice.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Shove in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchbousculer, fourrer, pousser (push roughly), poussée, bourrade (rough push)
Germanschubsen, schieben, drängen (push roughly), Schubs (rough push)
Portugueseempurrar (push roughly), empurrão (rough push)
Spanishempujar, empellar, empeller, empentar, cernear (push roughly), empujón (rough push)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does shove come from?

From Middle English schouven, from Old English sċūfan, from Proto-West Germanic *skeuban, from Proto-Germanic *skeubaną, from Proto-Indo-European *skewbʰ-. See also West Frisian skowe, Low German schuven, Dutch schuiven, German schieben, Danish skubbe, Norwegian Bokmål skyve, Norwegian Nynorsk skuva; also Lithuanian skùbti (“to hurry”), Polish skubać (“to pluck”), Albanian humb (“to lose”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after shove