brow
/bɹaʊ/noun, verb
brow is spelled B-R-O-W: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 3.5 times per million words in written English, the 13,897th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, brow means “The bony ridge over the eyes, upon which the eyebrows are located” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of brow is brows.
How many letters and syllables are in brow?
| Letters | 4: B-R-O-W |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.5 times per million words; the 13,897th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none 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 brow?
Brow appears 3.5 times per million words in written English, the 13,897th 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 brow?
- /bɹaʊ/
Brow 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-brow.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of brow
- brows plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- browing participle, present
- browed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does brow mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The bony ridge over the eyes, upon which the eyebrows are located.
- 2
The eyebrow.
- 3
The forehead.
- 4
Aspect; appearance; facial expression.
- 5
The projecting upper edge of a steep place such as a hill.
the brow of a precipice
- 6
The first tine of an antler's beam.
- 7
A gallery in a coal mine running across the face of the coal.
- 8
The gangway from ship to shore when a ship is lying alongside a quay.
verb
- 1
To bound or limit; to be at, or form, the edge of.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Brow in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| Spanish | sobrecejo, sobreceja |
| French | andouiller d'œil, maître andouiller, andouiller de massacre |
| Portuguese | pico |
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 brow come from?
From Middle English browe, from Old English brū, from Proto-West Germanic *brāwu, from Proto-Germanic *brūwō, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃bʰrúHs (“brow”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).