Ploughing or plowing?
ploughing is a noun meaning “The breaking of the ground into furrows (with a plough) for planting”; plowing is a verb meaning “Riding with neither foot leading, with the stick perpendicular to the fall…”. Use ploughing as a noun and plowing as a verb. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) plowing is about as common as ploughing.
What is the difference between ploughing and plowing?
| ploughing | plowing | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb | verb, noun |
| Meaning | The breaking of the ground into furrows (with a plough) for planting | Riding with neither foot leading, with the stick perpendicular to the fall line; not goofy nor regular Ploughing |
| Example | none recorded | none recorded |
| Forms | ploughings | none |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | not recorded |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words | about once in every 1 million words |
Sources: ploughing and plowing in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of ploughing and plowing
ploughing
- 1
The breaking of the ground into furrows (with a plough) for planting
plowing
- 1
Riding with neither foot leading, with the stick perpendicular to the fall line; not goofy nor regular
- 2
Alternative form of ploughing
- 3
Ploughing
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, ploughing or plowing?
ploughing appears about once in every 2 million words; plowing about once in every 1 million words.
ploughing about once in every 2 million wordsplowing about once in every 1 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).