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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

pew.

One of the long benches in a church, seating several persons, usually fixed to the floor and facing the chancel.

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/pjuː/Received-Pronunciation/pjʉw/British, Southern, Standard/pjʉ/Northern-Ireland, Scotland/pɪʊ/Wales
  1. One of the long benches in a church, seating several persons, usually fixed to the floor and facing the chancel.

    In many churches some pews are reserved for either clerical or liturgical officials such as canons, or for prominent families.
  2. The congregation of a church.

    broadly · in-plural
  3. An enclosed compartment in a church which provides seating for a group of people, often a prominent family.

  4. Any structure shaped like a church pew, such as a stall, formerly used by money lenders, etc.; a box in a theatre; or a pen or sheepfold.

  5. A chair; a seat.

    colloquial · humorous
    Pull up a pew.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English pewe, from Old French puiee, puïe (“balustrade, balcony”), from Latin podia, plural of podium (“parapet, podium”), from Ancient Greek πόδιον (pódion, “little foot”), from πούς (poús, “foot”). Doublet of podia.

verb/pjuː/Received-Pronunciation/pjʉw/British, Southern, Standard/pjʉ/Northern-Ireland, Scotland/pɪʊ/Wales
  1. To furnish with pews.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English pewe, from Old French puiee, puïe (“balustrade, balcony”), from Latin podia, plural of podium (“parapet, podium”), from Ancient Greek πόδιον (pódion, “little foot”), from πούς (poús, “foot”). Doublet of podia.

intj/pjuː/Received-Pronunciation/pjʉw/British, Southern, Standard/pjʉ/Northern-Ireland, Scotland/pɪʊ/Wales
  1. An expression of disgust in response to an unpleasant odor.

Where this word comes from

See phew.

intj/pjuː/Received-Pronunciation/pjʉw/British, Southern, Standard/pjʉ/Northern-Ireland, Scotland/pɪʊ/Wales
  1. Representative of the sound made by the firing of a gun, particularly a blaster in science fiction.

    childish
Where this word comes from

Onomatopoeic.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.