# bower

> English word · Noun · frequency rank #28,848

## Definitions
1. A bedroom or private apartments, especially for a woman in a medieval castle.
2. A dwelling; a picturesque country cottage, especially one that is used as a retreat.
3. A shady, leafy shelter or recess in a garden or woods.
4. A large structure made of grass, twigs, etc., and decorated with bright objects, used by male bower birds during courtship displays.

## Etymology
From Middle English bour, from Old English būr, from Proto-West Germanic *būr, from Proto-Germanic *būrą (“room, abode”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Búur (“storage room, utility room; cage”), German Bauer (“birdcage”), Old Norse búr (“cage”) (Danish bur, Norwegian Bokmål bur, Swedish bur).

## Easily confused with
- **bowl** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bower-vs-bowl)
- **bows** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bower-vs-bows)
- **boxes** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bower-vs-boxes)
- **buyer** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bower-vs-buyer)
- **bowls** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bower-vs-bowls)
- **boxer** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bower-vs-boxer)
- **Bowie** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bower-vs-bowie)
- **boxed** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bower-vs-boxed)
- **boyer** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bower-vs-boyer)
- **Bowes** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bower-vs-bowes)
- **broker** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bower-vs-broker)
- **brewer** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bower-vs-brewer)
- **bowler** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bower-vs-bowler)
- **boxers** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bower-vs-boxers)
- **bowled** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bower-vs-bowled)
- **Bowles** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bower-vs-bowles)
- **bowser** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bower-vs-bowser)
- **bowery** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bower-vs-bowery)
- **bowyer** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bower-vs-bowyer)
- **browser** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/bower-vs-browser)

## Common misspellings (7)
`bbower`, `boewr`, `bowerr`, `bowre`, `bowwer`, `bwoer`, `obwer`

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