shred
/ʃɹɛd/
"shred" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“shred” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #19,203 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #19,203
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A fragment of something; a particle; a piece; also, a very small amount.
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 | shred |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ʃɹɛd/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #19,203 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “shred” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for shred is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ʃɹɛd/. Corpus data places it at rank #19,203 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for shred, with forms such as "hsred", "sherd", and "shhred". 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, "sure", "sore", "sued", 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 shrede, shred (“fragment, piece, scrap; piece cut off from something; strip of material; ornamental strip hanging from the edge of a garment; thread; band or thread woven in a garment; element, streak; plant (?)”) [and other forms], from… The correct English form is shred, spelled S-H-R-E-D.
Definition
- 1A fragment of something; a particle; a piece; also, a very small amount.
- 2A long, narrow piece (especially of fabric) cut or torn off; a strip; specifically, a piece of cloth or clothing.
- 3A long, narrow piece (especially of fabric) cut or torn off; a strip; specifically, a piece of cloth or clothing.
- 4A long, narrow piece (especially of fabric) cut or torn off; a strip; specifically, a piece of cloth or clothing.
- 5A piece of gold or silver lace or thread.
- 6A shard or sherd (“a piece of broken glass or pottery”).
- 7A tailor.
Etymology
From Middle English shrede, shred (“fragment, piece, scrap; piece cut off from something; strip of material; ornamental strip hanging from the edge of a garment; thread; band or thread woven in a garment; element, streak; plant (?)”) [and other forms], from Late Old English sċrēad, sċrēade (“piece cut off from something; a paring; a shred”), from Proto-Germanic *skraudō (“a piece, shred; a crack; a cut”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut off”). Doublet of escrow.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hsred,sherd,shhred,shrde,shredd,shrred,srhed,sshred
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of shred - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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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Using “shred”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-H-R-E-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ʃɹɛd/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “sure” - see the side-by-side comparison. shred vs sure
- 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.