# bowed vs Bowen

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### bowed
*verb · IPA /baʊd/ · frequency rank #18,773*
simple past and past participle of bow

### Bowen
*name · IPA /ˈbəʊ.ən/ · frequency rank #14,706*
A surname from Welsh [in turn originating as a patronymic].

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bowed-vs-bowen