shire

noun / verb

Meaning

nounAn administrative area or district between about the 5th to the 11th century, subdivided into hundreds or wapentakes and jointly governed by an ealdorman and a sheriff; also, a present-day area corresponding to such a historical district; a county; especially , a county having a name ending in -shire.
Example: Yorkshire is the largest shire in England.
verbTo constitute or reconstitute (a country or region) into one or more shires (noun sense 1.1) or counties.
Example: County Longford was shired in 1586.
nounAn administrative area or district between about the 5th to the 11th century, subdivided into hundreds or wapentakes and jointly governed by an ealdorman and a sheriff; also, a present-day area corresponding to such a historical district; a county; especially , a county having a name ending in -shire.
Example: Yorkshire is the largest shire in England.

Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)

How common: Common; #1,122 of 8,600 five-letter words by how often they're used; Can be a Play Five answer
As a first guess: Tests likely letters better than 96% of common five-letter words.; Vowels: 2 · Different letters: 5 · Repeated letters: None