shovel
/ˈʃʌv.əl/
"shovel" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“shovel” has 9 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #15,059. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #15,059
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A hand tool with a handle, used for moving portions of material such as earth, snow, and grain from one place to another, with some forms also used for digging. In strict usage differentiated from ...
Corpus desk
Index EN-shovel · shovel · English
shovel · rank #15,059 · 9 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #15,059
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 9 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH shortened
Nearest frequency peer: shortened (-1 rank slots)
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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “shovel”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- scouting
scouting
84,948 corpus weight
- shortened
shortened
84,943 corpus weight
- shovel
shovel
84,942 corpus weight
- skinner
skinner
84,941 corpus weight
- smelled
smelled
84,940 corpus weight
- SMH
SMH
84,939 corpus weight
What this shows “shovel” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | shovel |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈʃʌv.əl/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #15,059 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “shovel”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 9 spelling variants around shovel (IPA /ˈʃʌv.əl/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #15,059 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for shovel, with forms such as "hsovel", "shhovel", and "shoevl". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "stove", "showed", "shower", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English shovele, schovel, showell, shoule, shole (> English dialectal shoul, shool), from Old English scofl (“shovel”), from Proto-Germanic *skuflō, *skūflō (“shovel”), equivalent to shove + -el (instrumental/agent suffix). Cognate with Scots sh… The correct English form is shovel, spelled S-H-O-V-E-L.
Definition
- 1A hand tool with a handle, used for moving portions of material such as earth, snow, and grain from one place to another, with some forms also used for digging. In strict usage differentiated from a spade, which is designed solely for small-scale digging and incidental tasks such as chopping of small roots.
- 2A mechanical part of an excavator with a similar function.
- 3Any shovel in the above senses, or any spade.
- 4Ellipsis of shovel hat.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how shovel appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
It was said that such train crews kept a spare shovel on board because, on numerous occasions, the beginner had not only zealously thrown coal into the firebox but had let the shovel go as well.
No one seems to like the offer, and the umpire is just coming down, when a queer old hat, something like a doctor of divinity's shovel, is chucked on to the stage […]
Etymology
From Middle English shovele, schovel, showell, shoule, shole (> English dialectal shoul, shool), from Old English scofl (“shovel”), from Proto-Germanic *skuflō, *skūflō (“shovel”), equivalent to shove + -el (instrumental/agent suffix). Cognate with Scots shuffle, shule, shuil (“shovel”), Saterland Frisian Sköifel (“shovel”), West Frisian skoffel, schoffel (“hoe, spade, shovel”), Dutch schoffel (“spade, hoe”), Low German Schüfel, Schuffel (“shovel”), German Schaufel (“shovel”), Danish skovl (“shovel”), Faroese skupla (“shovel”), Icelandic skófla (“shovel”), Norwegian skyfle (“shovel”), skyffel (“shovel, hoe”), Swedish skyffel, skovel (“shovel”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- hsovel
- shhovel
- shoevl
- shovell
- shovle
- shovvel
- shvoel
- sohvel
- sshovel
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of shovel - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "shovel", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).