chown
verb
chown is spelled C-H-O-W-N: 5 letters. It appears about once in every 15 million words in written English, the 118,441st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, chown means “To change the owner of (a file or directory)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in chown?
| Letters | 5: C-H-O-W-N |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 15 million words; the 118,441st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is chown?
Chown appears about once in every 15 million words in written English, the 118,441st 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).
Forms of chown
- chowns present, singular, he/she/it
- chowning participle, present
- chowned participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does chown mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To change the owner of (a file or directory).
When chowning a file, simply use: chown flags username:groupname
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does chown come from?
From the name of the program for this purpose, short for "change owner".
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).