cowed
/kaʊd/adjective, verb
cowed is spelled C-O-W-E-D: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 59,387th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, cowed means “Frightened into submission” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in cowed?
| Letters | 5: C-O-W-E-D |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 4 million words; the 59,387th 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 cowed?
Cowed appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 59,387th 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 cowed?
- /kaʊd/
Cowed 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Persent101-cowed.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of cowed
- more cowed comparative
- most cowed superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does cowed mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Frightened into submission.
For quotations using this term, see Citations:cowed.
verb
- 1
simple past and past participle of cow
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Cowed in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense frightened into submission:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | intimidé |
| German | eingeschüchtert |
| Spanish | intimidado |
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.