shunt

/ʃʌnt/verb, noun

shunt is spelled S-H-U-N-T: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 36,176th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, shunt means “To cause to move (suddenly), as by pushing or shoving; to give a (sudden) start to” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in shunt?

Letters	5: S-H-U-N-T
Syllables	1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing	about once in every 2 million words; the 36,176th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched	none measured in search
Rhymes with	front blunt confront runt

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; 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 shunt?

Shunt appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 36,176th most frequent word form in the list.

shunt0.0010.010.11101001,00010,000

rarerper million words of written Englishmore common

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce shunt?

UK /ʃʌnt/
US /ʃʌnt/
US /ʃənt/

Shunt has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-au-shunt.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with shunt?

4 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as shunt from its last stressed vowel (/ʌnt/):

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 shunt

shunts present, singular, he/she/it, plural
shunting participle, present
shunted participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does shunt mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

1
To cause to move (suddenly), as by pushing or shoving; to give a (sudden) start to.
2
To divert to a less important place, position, or state.
3
To provide with a shunt.
to shunt a galvanometer
4
To move data in memory to a physical disk.
5
To divert electric current by providing an alternative path.
6
To move a train from one track to another, or to move carriages, etc. from one train to another.
7
UKinformalTo have a minor collision, especially in a motor car.
8
To divert the flow of a body fluid.

noun

1
An act of moving (suddenly), as due to a push or shove.
2
A connection used as an alternative path between parts of an electrical circuit.
3
The shifting of the studs on a projectile from the deep to the shallow sides of the grooves in its discharge from a shunt gun.
4
An abnormal passage between body channels.
5
A passage between body channels constructed surgically as a bypass; a tube inserted into the body to create such a passage.
6
A switch on a railway used to move a train from one track to another.
7
UKinformalA minor collision between vehicles.