shuttle
/ˈʃʌtəl/
"shuttle" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“shuttle” has 9 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #8,349. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #8,349
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 6
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A tool used to carry the woof back and forth between the warp threads on a loom.
Corpus desk
Index EN-shuttle · shuttle · English
shuttle · rank #8,349 · 9 variants · 6 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #8,349
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 6 pairs
- VAR-MID 9 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH shepherd
Nearest frequency peer: shepherd (-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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “shuttle”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- sensation
sensation
91,655 corpus weight
- shaft
shaft
91,654 corpus weight
- shepherd
shepherd
91,653 corpus weight
- shuttle
shuttle
91,652 corpus weight
- slope
slope
91,651 corpus weight
- snack
snack
91,650 corpus weight
What this shows “shuttle” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | shuttle |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈʃʌtəl/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #8,349 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 6 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “shuttle”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 9 spelling variants around shuttle (IPA /ˈʃʌtəl/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #8,349 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 7 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for shuttle, with forms such as "hsuttle", "shhuttle", and "shtutle". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 6 confusable-pair relationships, "subtle", "settle", "Seattle", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From a merger of two words: * Middle English shutel, shotel, schetel, schettell, schyttyl, scutel (“bar; bolt”), from Old English sċyttel, sċutel (“bar; bolt”), equivalent to shut + -le * Middle English shutel, schetil, shotil, shetel, schootyll, shutyll, s… The correct English form is shuttle, spelled S-H-U-T-T-L-E.
Definition
- 1A tool used to carry the woof back and forth between the warp threads on a loom.
- 2The sliding thread holder in a sewing machine, which carries the lower thread through a loop of the upper thread, to make a lock stitch.
- 3A transport service (such as a bus or train) that goes back and forth between two or more places.
- 4Such a transport vehicle; a shuttle bus; a space shuttle.
- 5Any other item that moves repeatedly back and forth between two positions, possibly transporting something else with it between those points (such as, in chemistry, a molecular shuttle).
- 6A shuttlecock.
- 7A shutter, as for a channel for molten metal.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how shuttle appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
My dayes are ſwifter then a weauers ſhuttle, and are ſpent without hope.
Like shuttles through the loom, so swiftly glide My feather'd hours, and all my hopes deride!.
Etymology
From a merger of two words: * Middle English shutel, shotel, schetel, schettell, schyttyl, scutel (“bar; bolt”), from Old English sċyttel, sċutel (“bar; bolt”), equivalent to shut + -le * Middle English shutel, schetil, shotil, shetel, schootyll, shutyll, schytle, scytyl (“missile; projectile; spear”), from Old English sċytel, sċutel (“dart, arrow”), from Proto-Germanic *skutilaz. The name for a loom weaving instrument, recorded from 1338, is from a sense of being "shot" across the threads. The back-and-forth imagery inspired the extension to "passenger trains" in 1895, aircraft in 1942, and spacecraft in 1969, as well as older terms such as shuttlecock.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- hsuttle
- shhuttle
- shtutle
- shutle
- shutlte
- shuttel
- shuttlle
- sshuttle
- suhttle
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of shuttle - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 "shuttle", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).