sheer

/\ʃɪə\/ adj

Letters

5 characters

Frequency Rank

#92,191

in French word usage

Misspellings

0

tracked variants

Confusables

0

similar word pairs

sheer is anFrenchadj. It means: Transparent (car extra fin). Pronounced \ʃɪə\.

Key facts for sheer
PropertyValue
Headwordsheer
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdj
IPA\ʃɪə\
Letters5
Frequency rank#92,191
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of sheer in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for sheer is 5 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ʃɪə\. Corpus data places it at rank #92,191 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for sheer in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable French patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is sheer, spelled S-H-E-E-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Transparent (car extra fin).
  2. 2
    Pur.
  3. 3
    Vertical, à pic, abrupte.

Frequency rank: #92,191 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "sheer"?
"sheer" is spelled S-H-E-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is \ʃɪə\.
What does "sheer" mean?
As an adj, "sheer" means: Transparent (car extra fin).
How do you pronounce "sheer"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "sheer" is \ʃɪə\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "sheer" come from?
"sheer" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter S in our French index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.