dew
/d͡ʒuː/noun, verb
dew is spelled D-E-W: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 3.3 times per million words in written English, the 14,509th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, dew means “Any moisture from the atmosphere condensed by cool bodies upon their surfaces” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of dew is dews.
How many letters and syllables are in dew?
| Letters | 3: D-E-W |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.3 times per million words; the 14,509th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Same letters |
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is dew?
Dew appears 3.3 times per million words in written English, the 14,509th 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 dew?
- /d͡ʒuː/
- /djuː/
- /duː/
Dew 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-dew.ogg, En-uk-dew.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with dew
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with dew?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as dew.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: wed.
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 dew
- dews plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- dewing participle, present
- dewed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does dew mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Any moisture from the atmosphere condensed by cool bodies upon their surfaces.
- 2
Moisture in the air that settles on plants, etc in the morning or evening, resulting in drops.
- 3
An instance of such moisture settling on plants, etc.
There was a heavy dew this morning.
- 4
Anything that falls lightly and in a refreshing manner.
- 5
An emblem of morning, or fresh vigour.
verb
- 1
To wet with, or as if with, dew; to moisten.
- 2
To deposit dew.
noun
- 1
Acronym of Distant Early Warning.
- 2
Initialism of directed-energy weapon.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Dew in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense moisture in the air that settles on plants, etc:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | rosée |
| German | Tau |
| Portuguese | orvalho, sereno, riço |
| Spanish | rocío, sereno, relente, cencellada, rociada, roción |
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 dew come from?
From Middle English dew, from Old English dēaw (“dew”), from Proto-West Germanic *dauw, from Proto-Germanic *dawwaz, *dawwą (“dew, moisture”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂- (“smoke, haze”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).