# shunt

> English word · Verb · IPA /ʃʌnt/ · frequency rank #36,339

## Definitions
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.
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. To have a minor collision, especially in a motor car.
8. To divert the flow of a body fluid.
9. To turn aside or away; to divert.
10. To carry on arbitrage between the London stock exchange and provincial stock exchanges.

## Etymology
From Middle English schonten, schunten (“to jerk, swerve; to dodge, escape”), either:
* possibly a back-formation from Middle English schonen (“to avoid, refuse, hate, fear”), from Old English sċunian, sċyniġan; see shun. Or
* an alteration of Middle English *schunden, *schynden, from Old English sċyndan, sċendan (“to hasten, hurry”) (as in āsċyndan (“to remove, take away”), from Proto-West Germanic *skundijan, from Proto-Germanic *skundijaną (“to impel, hasten”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewt- (“to rattle, shake”).
* from unrecorded Old English *sċunettan, a derivative of sċunian (“to shun, avoid”).
As regards the noun sense, compare Middle English shunt (“swerve; sudden jerk”), derived from the verb.

## Easily confused with
- **sun** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shunt-vs-sun)
- **shut** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shunt-vs-shut)
- **suit** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shunt-vs-suit)
- **sung** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shunt-vs-sung)
- **slut** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shunt-vs-slut)
- **sunk** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shunt-vs-sunk)
- **spun** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shunt-vs-spun)
- **suns** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shunt-vs-suns)
- **stun** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shunt-vs-stun)
- **SUNY** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shunt-vs-suny)
- **smut** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shunt-vs-smut)
- **sound** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shunt-vs-sound)
- **spent** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shunt-vs-spent)
- **stunt** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shunt-vs-stunt)
- **stint** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shunt-vs-stint)
- **shuts** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shunt-vs-shuts)
- **squat** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shunt-vs-squat)
- **swung** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shunt-vs-swung)
- **stung** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shunt-vs-stung)
- **slant** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/shunt-vs-slant)

## Common misspellings (8)
`hsunt`, `shhunt`, `shnut`, `shunnt`, `shuntt`, `shutn`, `sshunt`, `suhnt`

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