eldertongue

Modern English → Old English

Old English word for sheep

3 headwords match “sheep”, ranked by the scoring in the data pipeline. The five strongest follow; sceap ranks first.

  1. 1

    sceap

    score 24

    noun, neuter · strong a-stem · 5 inflected forms

    sheep — sheep

    • opens the headword's definition
    • listed as an English descendant
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular sċēap
    genitive singular sċēapes
    dative singular sċēape
    accusative singular sċēap
    nominative plural sċēap
    genitive plural sċēapa
  2. 2

    sceapheord

    score 11

    noun, feminine · strong ō-stem · 4 inflected forms

    sheep — flock of sheep

    • appears in the definition
    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular sċēapheord
    genitive singular sċēapheorde
    dative singular sċēapheorde
    accusative singular sċēapheorde
    nominative plural sċēapheorda, sċēapheorde
    genitive plural sċēapheorda
  3. 3

    teafor

    score 4

    noun, neuter · strong a-stem · 5 inflected forms

    sheep — material used for making salve; balm, ointment

    • has a full inflection table
    Paradigm summary
    nominative singular tēafor
    genitive singular tēafres
    dative singular tēafre
    accusative singular tēafor
    nominative plural tēafor
    genitive plural tēafra

How this ranking works

Scores are computed once, when the site is built, from the Wiktionary data. Every headword whose definitions mention “sheep” gets the points below; the candidates are then sorted by total. The score is shown on each entry above so the order can be checked rather than trusted.

The English word opens the headword's definition+10
It appears later in the first definition+6
It appears in any definition+3
It is in the headword's links+2
It is listed as an English descendant (etymological evidence)+9
The headword has an inflection table+3
Part of speech is a proper noun−5
Part of speech is a verb (-ian derivations are noisy)−3
The headword is an alternative form−6
The first definition is longer than three words−2

A candidate has to be a real headword with its own entry: inflected forms and grammatical terminology (genitive, nominative, preterite, …) never appear here.

Not one of these?

The match may be a different sense of “sheep”, or an inflected form rather than a headword. Look up the form directly — the entry page marks the grammatical case.

Candidates derived from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0). Each entry links to its source page. · CC BY-SA 4.0 and attribution · CC BY-SA 4.0