# shroud

> English word · Noun · IPA /ʃraʊd/ · frequency rank #23,394

## Definitions
1. That which clothes, covers, conceals, or protects; a garment.
2. Especially, the dress for the dead; a winding sheet.
3. That which covers or shelters like a shroud.
4. A covered place used as a retreat or shelter, as a cave or den; also, a vault or crypt.
5. One of a set of ropes or cables (rigging) attaching a mast to the sides of a vessel or to another anchor point, serving to support the mast sideways; such rigging collectively.
6. One of the two annular plates at the periphery of a water wheel, which form the sides of the buckets; a shroud plate.
7. A streamlined protective covering used to protect the payload during a rocket-powered launch.

## Etymology
From Middle English shroud, from Old English sċrūd, from Proto-Germanic *skrūdą. Cognate with Old Norse skrúð (“the shrouds of a ship”) ( > Danish, Norwegian skrud (“splendid attire”)).

## Easily confused with
- **shrug** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shroud-vs-shrug)
- **shrub** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shroud-vs-shrub)
- **sprout** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shroud-vs-sprout)
- **Stroud** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shroud-vs-stroud)
- **shrouded** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shroud-vs-shrouded)
- **shout** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shout-vs-shroud)
- **shred** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shred-vs-shroud)
- **should** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/should-vs-shroud)
- **shrewd** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shrewd-vs-shroud)

## Common misspellings (9)
`hsroud`, `shhroud`, `shorud`, `shrodu`, `shroudd`, `shrroud`, `shruod`, `srhoud`, `sshroud`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/shroud