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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

renew.

To make (something) new again; to restore to freshness or original condition.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ɹɪˈnjuː/Received-Pronunciation/ɹɪˈnjʉw/British, Southern, Standard/ɹɪˈnju/Canada, General-American/ɹɪˈnu/Canada, General-American
  1. To make (something) new again; to restore to freshness or original condition.

    transitive
  2. To replace (something which has broken etc.); to replenish (something which has been exhausted), to keep up a required supply of.

    transitive
  3. To make new spiritually; to regenerate.

  4. To become new, or as new; to revive.

    archaic · intransitive
  5. To begin again; to recommence.

    transitive
    This murder has been a cold case for decades until last year when the new sheriff renewed the investigation.
  6. To repeat.

    rare
  7. To extend a period of loan, especially a library book that is due to be returned.

    intransitive · transitive
    I'd like to renew these three books.  Did you know that you can renew online?
Where this word comes from

From Middle English renewen, an alteration (possibly on analogy with Latin renovāre) of earlier anewen (“to renew”), from Old English nīewian (“to restore; renovate; renew”), equivalent to re- + new. Cognate with Old High German giniuwōn (“to renew”), Middle High German geniuwen (“to renew”), Old Norse nýja (“to renew”).

noun/ɹɪˈnjuː/Received-Pronunciation/ɹɪˈnjʉw/British, Southern, Standard/ɹɪˈnju/Canada, General-American/ɹɪˈnu/Canada, General-American
  1. Synonym of renewal.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English renewen, an alteration (possibly on analogy with Latin renovāre) of earlier anewen (“to renew”), from Old English nīewian (“to restore; renovate; renew”), equivalent to re- + new. Cognate with Old High German giniuwōn (“to renew”), Middle High German geniuwen (“to renew”), Old Norse nýja (“to renew”).

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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.