The suffix -shire is attached to most of the names of English, Scottish and Welsh counties. It tends not to be found in the names of shires that were pre-existing divisions.

The meaning of SHIRE is an administrative subdivision; especially : a county in England.

The Shires or the shire counties are the counties of England that have a lot of countryside and farms. Smart country people are fleeing back to the shires.

SHIRE definition: 1. a county, now used in combination in the names of many British counties: 2. the central rural…. Learn more.

shire (ʃaɪər) n. 1. one of the counties of Great Britain. 2. the Shires, the counties in the Midlands in which hunting is esp. popular.

Shire, draft horse breed native to the middle section of England. The breed descended from the English “great horse,” which carried men in full battle armour that often weighed as much as 400 pounds.

There are 13 meanings listed in OED's entry for the noun shire, six of which are labelled obsolete. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.

Dec 8, 2025 · The areas in red are shires (sense 1.1) or counties with names ending in -shire, and those in orange occasionally have names with this suffix.

SHIRE definition: one of the counties of Great Britain. See examples of shire used in a sentence.

A "shire" was a grouping of hundreds, with a similar gathering of its principal men for judicial, military, and fiscal purposes.