sheriff
Syllables: sher·iff/ˈʃɛɹɪf/
sheriff noun: (High Sheriff) An official of a shire or county office, responsible for carrying out court orders, law enforcement and other duties.
Noun
sheriff (plural sheriffs)
- (High Sheriff) An official of a shire or county office, responsible for carrying out court orders, law enforcement and other duties.
- A judge in the sheriff court, the court of a county or sheriffdom.
- A government official, usually responsible for law enforcement in their county and for administration of the county jail, sometimes an officer of the court, usually elected.
Verb
sheriff (third-person singular simple present sheriffs, present participle sheriffing, simple past and past participle sheriffed)
Proper noun capitalized: Sheriff
Sheriff
- An English surname originating as an occupation.
sheriff meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
sheriff in Hindi
- all meanings
- शेरिफ़ śerif, शरीफ śarīph
sheriff in Tamil
- மாநகர் அண்ணல், மாநகர் மணியம், மாவட்ட அலுவலர்
sheriff in Marathi
- all meanings
- शेरिफ śeriph
sheriff in Urdu
- all meanings
- شیرِف śerif
More languagesFewer languages
- sheriff in Bengali
- শেরিফ, শেরীফ
- sheriff in Telugu
- షెరీఫ్, షెరిఫ్
- sheriff in Malayalam
- നഗരാധികാരി, ഉദ്യോഗസ്ഥൻ, ഗ്രാമോദ്യോഗസ്ഥൻ, രാജപ്രതിനിധി
- sheriff in Kannada
- ಶೆರಿಫ್, ಶೆರೀಫ್, ಶೇರಿಫ್
- sheriff in Punjabi
- ਸ਼ੈਰਿਫ, ਸ਼ੈਰਿਫ਼, ਸ਼ੈਰੀਫ
- sheriff in Gujarati
- શેરિફ
- sheriff in Odia
- ଶେରିଫ୍, ଶେରିଫ
- sheriff in Nepali
- शेरीफ
- sheriff in Tagalog
- serip
- sheriff in Arabic
- شَرِيف šarīf
- sheriff in Malay
- syerif
- sheriff in Vietnamese
- cảnh sát trưởng
Examples of sheriff in a sentence
- Law enforcement is the duty of police, sheriffs and other government officials.
- A case of shrieval corruption eventually led to the sheriff facing criminal charges.
- The sheriff kept his gun unholstered in case the cowboys started any trouble.
Forms of sheriff
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | sheriffs |
| alternative form (obsolete) | sherriff |
| alternative form (obsolete) | shrieve |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | sheriffs |
| present participle | sheriffing |
| past participle | sheriffed |
| past | sheriffed |
Origin of sheriff
Inherited from Middle English shirreve, in turn inherited from Old English sċīrġerēfa, corresponding to shire + reeve. There is no etymological connection to sharif (Arabic شَرِيف (šarīf)), an Arabic title of honour with cognates in other languages, including Persian, Punjabi, Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, Turkish, Spanish, Portuguese, etc.
From sheriff.
Words formed from sheriff
Phrases with sheriff
Words that rhyme with sheriff
Questions about sheriff
- What does sheriff mean?
- Sheriff means (High Sheriff) An official of a shire or county office, responsible for carrying out court orders, law enforcement and other duties.
- What is sheriff in Hindi?
- Sheriff in Hindi is शेरिफ़ (śerif), शरीफ (śarīph). See Sheriff meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is sheriff?
- Sheriff can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce sheriff?
- Sheriff is pronounced /ˈʃɛɹɪf/.
- What is the plural of sheriff?
- The plural of sheriff is sheriffs.
Words near sheriff in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sheriff (page history and authors); Sheriff (page history and authors); sheriff (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sheriff (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sheriff (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sheriff (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sheriff (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sheriff (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sheriff (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sheriff (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sheriff (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-sheriff.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-sheriff.wav.
Cite this entry: “sheriff.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sheriff. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.