shelf

Other forms of shelf

plural

shelves

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 shelf

What does shelf mean?

shelf means "a support that consists of a horizontal surface for holding objects". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in shelf?

shelf has 1 syllable: shelf. In IPA it is /ˈʃɛlf/.

What is another word for shelf?

Close synonyms include ledge. 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 shelf a common word?

shelf is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with shelf?

1 word rhymes with shelf. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.