sheng

\ʃɛŋ\

/\ʃɛŋ\/ noun

The verdict

“sheng” is uncommon French (frequency #61,144 among 6,032 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#61,144
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Orgue à bouche chinois.

Corpus desk

Index FR-sheng · sheng · French

sheng · rank #61,144 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #61,144
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH sexton

Nearest frequency peer: sexton (-2 rank slots)

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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « sheng »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « sheng » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for sheng
PropertyValue
Headwordsheng
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ʃɛŋ\
Letters5
Frequency rank#61,144
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « sheng » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.shengtombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « sexton » (#61,142), « sinistrée » (#61,146), « sevrer » (#61,141). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « sheng » est au #61,144. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

sheng is uncommon French at frequency #61,144 among 6,032 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ʃɛŋ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Orgue à bouche chinois.".

sheng doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is sheng, spelled S-H-E-N-G.

Definition

  1. 1
    Orgue à bouche chinois.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how sheng appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Le double concerto Double Act de Donghoon Shin, que je vais jouer en Corée en avril prochain et la saison prochaine avec l’Orchestre national de Bretagne, offre un magnifique exemple de cette identité double, dans une sonorité quasi fusionnelle et singulière avec le sheng, orgue à bouche chinois, et avec l’orchestre.

This word in other languages

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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "sheng"?
"sheng" is spelled S-H-E-N-G. The IPA pronunciation is \ʃɛŋ\.
What does "sheng" mean?
As a noun, "sheng" means: Orgue à bouche chinois.
How do you pronounce "sheng"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "sheng" is \ʃɛŋ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "sheng" come from?
"sheng" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "sheng", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list