Soe or sow?
soe is a noun meaning “Initialism of state-owned enterprise”; sow is a noun meaning “A female pig”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) sow is about 2.6 times as common as soe.
What is the difference between soe and sow?
| soe | sow | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun, verb |
| Meaning | A female pig A female bear; she-bear To scatter, disperse, or plant (seeds) | |
| Example | "[…] no more then a Pump grown dry will yield any water, unless you pour a little water into it first, and then for one Bason-ful you may… | When I had sown the field, the day's work was over |
| Forms | soes | sows |
| Pronunciation | /səʊ/ | /saʊ/ /səʊ/ /soʊ/ |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words | 2.4 times per million words |
Sources: soe 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 soe and sow
soe
- 1
Initialism of state-owned enterprise
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, soe or sow?
soe appears about once in every 1 million words; sow 2.4 times per million words.
soe about once in every 1 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).