shovel
/ˈʃʌv.əl/
"shovel" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“shovel” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #15,059 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #15,059
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 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 ...
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) |
Where “shovel” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for shovel is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈʃʌv.əl/. Corpus data places it at rank #15,059 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
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.
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
How do you spell "shovel"?
What does "shovel" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "shovel"?
How do you pronounce "shovel"?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “shovel”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-H-O-V-E-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈʃʌv.əl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “stove” - see the side-by-side comparison. shovel vs stove
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.