shrike
/ʃɹaɪk/
"shrike" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“shrike” is uncommon English (frequency #60,469 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #60,469
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Any of various passerine birds of the family Laniidae which are known for their habit of catching other birds and small animals and impaling the uneaten portions of their bodies on thorns.
Corpus desk
Index EN-shrike · shrike · English
shrike · rank #60,469 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #60,469
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH shortcake
Nearest frequency peer: shortcake (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “shrike”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- shonda
shonda
39,535 corpus weight
- shonen
shonen
39,534 corpus weight
- shortcake
shortcake
39,533 corpus weight
- shrike
shrike
39,532 corpus weight
- shrivel
shrivel
39,531 corpus weight
- sib
sib
39,530 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “shrike” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | shrike |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ʃɹaɪk/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #60,469 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “shrike” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
shrike is uncommon English at frequency #60,469 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ʃɹaɪk/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Any of various passerine birds of the family Laniidae which are known for their habit of catching other birds and small animals and impaling the uneaten portions of their bodies on thorns.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for shrike, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English *schrike, *schryke, from Old English sċrīc (“shrike, thrush”), from the same root as shriek and screech, named after the bird's cry. Compare Icelandic skríkja (“shrieker, shrike”), Swedish skrika (“jay”). The correct English form is shrike, spelled S-H-R-I-K-E.
Definition
- 1Any of various passerine birds of the family Laniidae which are known for their habit of catching other birds and small animals and impaling the uneaten portions of their bodies on thorns.
Etymology
From Middle English *schrike, *schryke, from Old English sċrīc (“shrike, thrush”), from the same root as shriek and screech, named after the bird's cry. Compare Icelandic skríkja (“shrieker, shrike”), Swedish skrika (“jay”).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
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 "shrike", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
What to do next
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- Usage frequency rank #60,469 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
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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.