sifu
"sifu" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sifu” is uncommon English (frequency #90,989 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #90,989
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A master or teacher in the context of martial arts, especially kung fu and tai chi.
Corpus desk
Index EN-sifu · sifu · English
sifu · rank #90,989 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #90,989
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH sigmoid
Nearest frequency peer: sigmoid (+2 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.
Long-tail ranks near “sifu”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- sheepshead
sheepshead
9,019 corpus weight
- shish
shish
9,015 corpus weight
- sifu
sifu
9,012 corpus weight
- sigmoid
sigmoid
9,010 corpus weight
- signboard
signboard
9,009 corpus weight
- skipjack
skipjack
9,007 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “sifu” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sifu |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #90,989 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “sifu” in English
Rare enough to double-check
sifu is uncommon English at frequency #90,989 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for sifu in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Cantonese 師傅／师傅 (si1 fu6-2, “master”) and 師父／师父 (si1 fu6-2, “my master”), both also conveying the sense of teacher. The correct English form is sifu, spelled S-I-F-U.
Definition
- 1A master or teacher in the context of martial arts, especially kung fu and tai chi.
- 2A spiritual father in esoteric contexts.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how sifu appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Who is -- don't get cute with me, you dumb bastard, I'm your sifu.
Etymology
From Cantonese 師傅／师傅 (si1 fu6-2, “master”) and 師父／师父 (si1 fu6-2, “my master”), both also conveying the sense of teacher.
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 "sifu", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).