sho

S1H4O1
UK/ʃəʊ/US/ʃoʊ/

noun

A Japanese free reed musical instrument similar to the Chinese sheng.

OriginJapanese 笙 →
Less commonScrabble 6
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Meanings

sho1

adverbsho (not comparable)
  1. Southern USnot comparablepronunciation spellingAfrican-American VernacularPronunciation spelling of sure.

    “I sho am glad. You sho you all right? I thought sho you was dead this time.”

    1952, Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Penguin Books (2014), page 97
  2. childishnot comparablepronunciation spellingPronunciation spelling of so.

sho2

nounsho (plural shos)

plural shos

  1. A Japanese free reed musical instrument similar to the Chinese sheng.

    The arrangement of pipes symbolizes the folded wings of the mythical phoenix, whose cry the shō's sound is said to represent.

    2015, J. Kenneth Moore, Jayson Kerr Dobney, E Bradley Strachen-Scherer, Musical Instruments: Highlights of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, →ISBN, page 120

sho3

nounsho (plural shos)

plural shos

  1. A letter of the Greek alphabet used to write the Bactrian language: uppercase Ϸ, lowercase ϸ.

SHO4

adjectiveSHO (not comparable)
  1. abbreviationacronyminitialismnot comparableAbbreviation of super-high-output.

Sho5

proper noun
  1. alternativeAlternative form of Shö, a Kuki-Chin language/dialect group

Origin

sho · noun

  1. Japanese笙
  2. Englishsho

Borrowed from Japanese 笙 (shō).

More words from Japanese

Full word history & related roots →

sho · noun

Of modern scholarly coinage. From its Bactrian pronunciation /ʃ/, and the final omricon (ο) found at the end of almost all Bactrian words.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Chinese Mandarin 笙, 笙簧
  • 笙 (shēng)East Asian reed pipe
  • 笙簧 (shēnghuáng)East Asian reed pipe
Esperanto ŝo
  • ŝoname of the letter Ϸ, ϸ
Finnish shō, šoo
  • shōEast Asian reed pipe
  • šooname of the letter Ϸ, ϸ
  • shooname of the letter Ϸ, ϸ
Greek σω
  • σω (so)name of the letter Ϸ, ϸ
Italian sho
  • shoname of the letter Ϸ, ϸ
Japanese 笙
  • 笙 (shō)East Asian reed pipe
Korean 소
  • 소 (so)East Asian reed pipe

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with sho

todonosogoknowshowolowbelowcoproagothoughohalthoughflowpojoemosnowhellorowgrow
All rhymes →

Sounds the same

showshowshow

Anagrams

oshsoh
Cite this entry
APA

sho. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sho

MLA

“sho.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sho. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “sho,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sho.

Source: sho on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.