sheriff

See also: Sheriff

English

Alternative forms

• sherriff, shrieve (obsolete)

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃɛɹɪf/, /ˈʃɛɹəf/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: sher‧iff
• Rhymes: -ɛɹɪf, -ɛɹəf

Noun

sheriff (plural sheriffs)

1. (UK, except Scotland) (High Sheriff) An official of a shire or county office, responsible for carrying out court orders, law enforcement and other duties.
2. (Scotland) A judge in the sheriff court, the court of a county or sheriffdom.
3. (US) 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.

Derived terms

• high sheriff
• sheriffalty
• sheriffdom
• sheriffess
• sheriffhood
• Sheriff Hutton
• sheriffry
• sheriffship
• sheriffwick
• subsheriff
• there is a new sheriff in town
• undersheriff

Descendants

• → Dutch: sheriff
• → Portuguese: xerife

Translations

all meanings

• Albanian: sherif (sq) m
• Arabic: شَرِيف m (šarīf)
• Armenian: շերիֆ (hy) (šerif)
• Azerbaijani: şerif
• Belarusian: шэры́ф m (šerýf)
• Bulgarian: шери́ф m (šeríf)
• Catalan: xèrif (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 郡治安官 (zh) (jùnzhì'ānguān)

• Czech: šerif (cs) m
• Danish: sherif c
• Dutch: sheriff (nl) m
• Esperanto: ŝerifo
• Estonian: šerif
• Finnish: šeriffi (fi), seriffi (fi), sheriffi (fi)
• French: shérif (fr) m
• Galician: shériff m
• Georgian: შერიფი (šeripi)
• German: Sheriff (de) m
• Greek: σερίφης (el) m (serífis)
• Hebrew: שֵׁרִיף m (shérif)
• Hindi: शेरिफ़ m (śerif), शरीफ (hi) m (śarīph)
• Hungarian: seriff (hu), (US sense) megyei rendőrfőnök
• Icelandic: fógeti (is), skerfari m
• Ido: ushero (io)
• Irish: sirriam m
• Italian: sceriffo (it) m
• Japanese: 保安官 (ja) (ほあんかん, hoankan), シェリフ (sherifu)
• Kazakh: шериф (šeriyf)
• Korean: 보안관(保安官) (ko) (boan'gwan), 형사(刑事) (ko) (hyeongsa), 세리프 (seripeu)
• Kyrgyz: шериф (şerif)
• Latvian: šerifs m
• Lithuanian: šerifas m
• Macedonian: шериф m (šerif)
• Malay: syerif
• Marathi: शेरिफ m (śeriph)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: sheriff m, lensmann (no) m

• Ojibwe: dakoniwewinini
• Persian:

  Iranian Persian: کَلانْتَر (fa) (kalântar), شِریف (fa) (šerif)

• Polish: szeryf (pl) m
• Portuguese: xerife (pt) m
• Romanian: șerif (ro) m
• Russian: шери́ф (ru) m (šeríf)
• Scottish Gaelic: siorram m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: шѐриф m

  Latin: šèrif (sh) m

• Slovak: šerif m
• Slovene: šerif (sl) f
• Spanish: sheriff m, alguacil (es) m
• Swedish: sheriff (sv) c
• Tagalog: serip
• Tajik: шериф (šerif)
• Tewa: awasêe
• Turkish: şerif (tr)
• Ukrainian: шери́ф m (šerýf)
• Urdu: شیرِف m (śerif)
• Uzbek: sherif (uz) m
• Vietnamese: cảnh sát trưởng (警察長)
• Welsh: siryf m

Verb

sheriff (third-person singular simple present sheriffs, present participle sheriffing, simple past and past participle sheriffed)

1. (transitive) To carry out the duties of a sheriff. (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)

See also

• hatti-sherif (etymologically unrelated)

• bailiff
• constable
• justice of the peace
• marshal
• police

Anagrams

• Shiffer

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English sheriff.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃɛ.rɪf/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: she‧riff
• Rhymes: -ɛrɪf

Noun

sheriff m (plural sheriffs, diminutive sheriffje n)

1. sheriff

Derived terms

• hulpsheriff

References

• van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010), “sheriff”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute

Further reading

• sheriff on the Dutch Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^nl

Spanish

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-West Germanic *skīru

Old English sċīr

Old English ġerēfa

Old English sċīrġerēfa

Middle English shirreve

English sheriffubor.

Spanish sheriff

Unadapted borrowing from English sheriff.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃeɾif/ [ˈʃe.ɾif]
• Rhymes: -eɾif

Noun

sheriff m (plural sheriffs)

1. sheriff (all senses)

   Synonym: alguacil

   • 2025 January 2, Alaa Elassar, “El conductor del Tesla Cybertruck se disparó antes de la explosión, dice la policía”, in CNN en Español‎^[1]:

     Las autoridades no están identificando a Livelsberger como la persona encontrada dentro del Cybertruck porque el cuerpo encontrado dentro del vehículo estaba quemado hasta quedar irreconocible, dijo el sheriff de Las Vegas, Kevin McMahill, en una conferencia de prensa este jueves.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Further reading

• “sheriff”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025
• Seco, Manuel; Andrés, Olimpia; Ramos, Gabino (2023), “sheriff”, in Diccionario del español actual [Dictionary of Current Spanish] (in Spanish), third digital edition, Fundación BBVA