showdown
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
8 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "showdown", 8-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 "showdown" 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 "showdown" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
showdown is aEnglishnoun. It means: The final battle between two opponents, in which there can be only one victor. Often confused with Snowdon and shutdown.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | showdown |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #15,271 |
| Misspellings tracked | 13 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for showdown is 8 letters long, classified as anoun. Corpus data places it at rank #15,271 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 13 documented wrong-spelling variants for showdown, with forms such as "hsowdown", "shhowdown", and "shodwown". 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 3 confusable-pair relationships, "Snowdon", "shutdown", "slowdown", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From show + down. 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 showdown, spelled S-H-O-W-D-O-W-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1The final battle between two opponents, in which there can be only one victor.
- 2The final round in a poker match, where all of the remaining players' cards have to be put down on the table and shown.
Etymology
From show + down.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hsowdown,shhowdown,shodwown,showddown,showdonw,showdownn,showdowwn,showdwon,showodwn,showwdown,shwodown,sohwdown,sshowdown
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for showdown
Misspelling Variants of "showdown"
Frequency rank: #15,271 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter S in our English index: