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PlainSpell

chow

UK /t͡ʃaʊ/noun, verb

chow is spelled C-H-O-W: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 2.7 times per million words in written English, the 16,455th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, chow means “Food, especially snacks” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of chow is chows.

How many letters and syllables are in chow?

Letters4: C-H-O-W
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing2.7 times per million words; the 16,455th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Sounds like
Rhymes with

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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is chow?

Chow appears 2.7 times per million words in written English, the 16,455th 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 chow?

  • UK /t͡ʃaʊ/

Chow 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-AU_ck1_chow.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with chow

Sounds like: ciao (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with chow?

2 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as chow from its last stressed vowel (/aʊ/, British pronunciation):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of chow

  • chows plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • chowing participle, present
  • chowed participle, past

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

What does chow mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    slangFood, especially snacks.

    I'm going to pick up some chow for dinner.

  2. 2

    Unripe, or partially ripened, fruit seasoned and served as a dish, e.g. pineapple chow or mango chow.

  3. 3

    A Chow Chow.

  4. 4

    AustraliaarchaicslangA Chinese person.

  5. 5

    A prefecture or district of the second rank in China, or the chief city of such a district.

  6. 6

    A run of three consecutive tiles of the same suit.

  7. 7

    A call for forming such a run using a discarded tile.

verb

  1. 1

    slangTo eat.

  2. 2

    To call a discarded tile to produce a chow.

noun

as Chow
  1. 1

    A Chow Chow (Chinese breed of dog).

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

Chow in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchbouffe (''(slang)'' food, especially snacks)
GermanFressalien (''(slang)'' food, especially snacks), essen, verschlingen, hinunterschlingen (to eat)

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 chow come from?

Shortened from chow-chow, from Chinese Pidgin English chow-chow. Compare Macanese chau-cháu. See also English chow fun, chow mein, etc.

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

What to look up after chow