shrub
/ˈʃɹʌb/noun, verb
shrub is spelled S-H-R-U-B: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.5 times per million words in written English, the 22,651st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, shrub means “A woody plant smaller than a tree, and usually with several stems from the same base” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of shrub is shrubs.
How many letters and syllables are in shrub?
| Letters | 5: S-H-R-U-B |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 |
| In writing | 1.5 times per million words; the 22,651st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is shrub?
Shrub appears 1.5 times per million words in written English, the 22,651st most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce shrub?
- /ˈʃɹʌb/
- [ˈʃʰɹʷʌb]
- /ˈʃɹʊb/
Shrub has one syllable.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-shrub.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with shrub?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as shrub.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: brush.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of shrub
- shrubs plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- shrubbing participle, present
- shrubbed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does shrub mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A woody plant smaller than a tree, and usually with several stems from the same base.
- 2
A liquor composed of vegetable acid, fruit juice (especially lemon), sugar, sometimes vinegar, and a small amount of spirit as a preservative. Modern shrub is usually non-alcoholic, but in earlier times it was often mixed with a substantial amount of spirit such as brandy or rum, thus making it a liqueur.
- 3
slangA word mispronounced by replacing some consonant sounds with others of a similar place of articulation as influenced by one's mother tongue.
verb
- 1
slangTo mispronounce (a word or words) in another language in a manner that is influenced by one's mother tongue.
- 2
obsoleteTo lop; to prune.
- 3
rareTo plant a shrub in a yard, garden, etc.; to prune a bush or other plant into a shrub.
- 4
rareTo make or drink a shrub (liquor drink).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Shrub in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense woody plant:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | arbrisseau, arbuste |
| German | Busch, Strauch |
| Portuguese | arbusto, moita |
| Spanish | mata, arbusto |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does shrub come from?
From Middle English schrub, schrob, (also unassibilated as scrub), from Old English *sċrob (in placenames) and sċrybb (“a shrub; shrubbery; underbrush”); akin to Norwegian skrubbe (“the dwarf cornel tree”). Doublet of scrub.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).