Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

human shield

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.26 in modern English

Syllables: hu-man shield
IPA

20

Scrabble Score

11

Letters

2

Syllables

10

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

Civilians which a military group has deliberately placed combat targets near to deter an enemy from attacking those targets.

noun

Third parties used cynically to divert attention away from accusations against oneself.

Example Sentences

"And after the past few days, in which a fleet of Republicans and the president himself have utilized Jews as human shields for racist rhetoric, the Jews are tired, tired, tired of being used as defenses against naked racism, tired of being used to justify conditions at detention camps. Just plain tired."

Inflected Forms

human shields (plural)

Questions

What does human shield mean?: Civilians which a military group has deliberately placed combat targets near to deter an enemy from attacking those targets.

How to pronounce human shield

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “human shield”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “human shield”.
Repeat and practice — Say “human shield” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.