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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

sow.

A female animal

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/saʊ/UK, US
  1. A female animal A female pig.

  2. A female animal A female bear; she-bear.

  3. A female animal A female guinea pig.

  4. A contemptible, often fat woman.

    derogatory · slang
  5. Clipping of sowbug.

    abbreviation · alt-of · clipping
  6. A channel that conducts molten metal to molds.

  7. A mass of metal solidified in a mold.

  8. A kind of covered shed, formerly used by besiegers in filling up and passing the ditch of a besieged place, sapping and mining the wall, etc.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *sew-? Proto-Indo-European *sewH-? Proto-Indo-European *suH-der. Proto-Germanic *sugō Proto-West Germanic *sugu Old English sugu Middle English sowe English sow From Middle English sowe, from Old English sugu, from Proto-West Germanic *sugu, from Proto-Germanic *sugō, probably from Proto-Indo-European *su(H)kéh₂, from *suH- (“pig”). See also West Frisian sûch, Dutch zeug, Low German Söög, German Sau, Swedish sugga, Norwegian sugge; also Welsh hwch (“pig”), Sanskrit सूकर (sūkará, “swine, boar”); also Danish so, German Sau, Latin sūs, Tocharian B suwo, Ancient Greek ὗς (hûs), Albanian thi, Avestan 𐬵𐬏 (hū, “boar”). See also swine. Doublet of soor.

verb/səʊ/UK/soʊ/US
  1. To scatter, disperse, or plant (seeds).

    ambitransitive
    When I had sown the field, the day's work was over.
  2. To spread abroad; to propagate.

    ambitransitive · figuratively
    as you sow, so shall you reap
  3. To scatter over; to besprinkle.

    figuratively
  4. Obsolete spelling of sew.

    alt-of · obsolete
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *seh₁- Proto-Germanic *sēaną Proto-West Germanic *sāan Old English sāwan Middle English sowen English sow From Middle English sowen, from Old English sāwan, from Proto-West Germanic *sāan, from Proto-Germanic *sēaną, from Proto-Indo-European *seh₁-. Compare Dutch zaaien, German säen, Danish så, Norwegian Bokmål så.

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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.