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PlainSpell

brew

/bɹuː/verb, noun

brew is spelled B-R-E-W: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 4.4 times per million words in written English, the 12,216th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, brew means “To make tea or coffee by mixing tea leaves or coffee beans with hot water” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in brew?

Letters4: B-R-E-W
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing4.4 times per million words; the 12,216th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is brew?

Brew appears 4.4 times per million words in written English, the 12,216th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce brew?

  • /bɹuː/
  • [bɹuʊ̯]
  • /bɹɪʊ̯/

Brew has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-brew.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of brew

  • brews present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • brewing participle, present
  • brewed participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does brew mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To make tea or coffee by mixing tea leaves or coffee beans with hot water.

  2. 2

    To heat wine, infusing it with spices; to mull.

  3. 3

    To make a hot soup by combining ingredients and boiling them in water.

  4. 4

    To make beer by steeping a starch source in water and fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with yeast.

  5. 5

    To foment or prepare, as by brewing.

  6. 6

    To attend to the business, or go through the processes, of brewing or making beer.

  7. 7

    To be in a state of preparation; to be mixing, forming, or gathering.

  8. 8

    obsoleteTo boil or seethe; to cook.

noun

  1. 1

    The mixture formed by brewing; that which is brewed; a brewage, such as tea or beer.

  2. 2

    slangA serving of beer.

  3. 3

    UKslangA cup of tea.

  4. 4

    A boiled concoction or mixture of liquids and other ingredients.

  5. 5

    UKAn overhanging hill or cliff.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Brew in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchinfuser (make tea or coffee), bouillir (make a hot soup), brasser (to make beer), manigancer, ourdir (to contrive; plot)
Germanbrühen, aufbrühen (make tea or coffee), brauen (to make beer)
Portugueseinfundir (make tea or coffee)
Spanishelaborar, confeccionar, cebar, colar, cocer (make tea or coffee)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does brew come from?

From Middle English brewen, from Old English brēowan, from Proto-West Germanic *breuwan, from Proto-Germanic *brewwaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrewh₁-. Doublet of burn.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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