shuttle
/ˈʃʌtəl/
"shuttle" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“shuttle” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #8,349 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #8,349
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 6
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A tool used to carry the woof back and forth between the warp threads on a loom.
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) |
Where “shuttle” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for shuttle is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈʃʌtəl/. Corpus data places it at rank #8,349 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
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.
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
How do you spell "shuttle"?
What does "shuttle" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "shuttle"?
How do you pronounce "shuttle"?
What is the origin of the word "shuttle"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “shuttle”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-H-U-T-T-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈʃʌtəl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “subtle” - see the side-by-side comparison. shuttle vs subtle
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.