overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

tallow.

A hard animal fat obtained from suet, etc.; used in cooking as well as to make candles, soap and lubricants.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈtæləʊ/UK/ˈtæloʊ/General-American
  1. A hard animal fat obtained from suet, etc.; used in cooking as well as to make candles, soap and lubricants.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English talow, talgh, from Old English *tealh, *tealg, (compare Old English tælg, telg (“dye”)), from Proto-West Germanic *talg, from Proto-Germanic *talgaz (compare Dutch talg, German Talg), from Proto-Indo-European *del- (“to flow”) (compare Middle Irish delt (“dew”), Old Armenian տեղ (teł, “heavy rain”)).

verb/ˈtæləʊ/UK/ˈtæloʊ/General-American
  1. To grease or smear with tallow.

  2. To cause to have a large quantity of tallow; to fatten.

    transitive
    to tallow sheep
  3. Of animals: to develop quantities of tallow.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English talow, talgh, from Old English *tealh, *tealg, (compare Old English tælg, telg (“dye”)), from Proto-West Germanic *talg, from Proto-Germanic *talgaz (compare Dutch talg, German Talg), from Proto-Indo-European *del- (“to flow”) (compare Middle Irish delt (“dew”), Old Armenian տեղ (teł, “heavy rain”)).

FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

tallow has 6 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

tallow studiotallow workshello, tallow

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

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.