Sew or sow?
sew is a verb meaning “To use a needle to pass thread repeatedly through (pieces of fabric) in order…”; sow is a noun meaning “A female pig”. Use sew as a verb and sow as a noun (sow is also a verb: “To scatter, disperse, or plant (seeds)”). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) sew is about as common as sow.
What is the difference between sew and sow?
| sew | sow | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb, noun | noun, verb |
| Meaning | To use a needle to pass thread repeatedly through (pieces of fabric) in order to join them together To use a needle to pass thread repeatedly through pieces of fabric in order to join them together Of a ship, to be grounded | A female pig A female bear; she-bear To scatter, disperse, or plant (seeds) |
| Example | I sewed a button on | When I had sown the field, the day's work was over |
| Forms | sews, sewing, sewed, sewn sews, sewing, sewed | sows |
| Pronunciation | /səʊ/ /soʊ/ /səʉ/ | /saʊ/ /səʊ/ /soʊ/ |
| In writing | 2.8 times per million words | 2.4 times per million words |
Sources: sew and sow 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 sew and sow
sew
- 1
To use a needle to pass thread repeatedly through (pieces of fabric) in order to join them together
I sewed a button on
- 2
Of a ship, to be grounded
- 3
To use a needle to pass thread repeatedly through pieces of fabric in order to join them together
- 4
Followed by into: to enclose by sewing
to sew money into a bag
sow
- 1
A female pig
- 2
To scatter, disperse, or plant (seeds)
When I had sown the field, the day's work was over
- 3
Initialism of statement of work (“a document in project management, including deliverables and timelines”)
- 4
A female bear; she-bear
- 5
To spread abroad; to propagate
as you sow, so shall you reap
- 6
Initialism of standoff weapon
- 7
A female guinea pig
- 8
To scatter over; to besprinkle
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, sew or sow?
sew appears 2.8 times per million words; sow 2.4 times per million words.
sew 2.8 times per million wordssow 2.4 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search sew vs sow?
“sew vs sow” is searched about 1,000 times a month on Google and 30 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“sow vs sew”, “sew or sow”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.