shamus

Other forms of shamus

plural

shamuses·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about shamus

What does shamus mean?

shamus means "someone who can be employed as a detective to collect information".

How many syllables are in shamus?

shamus has 2 syllables: sha-mus. The stress falls on "sha". In IPA it is /ˈʃeɪməs/.

What is another word for shamus?

Close synonyms include private detective, PI, private eye, private investigator, operative. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is shamus a common word?

shamus is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.