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dow

/daʊ/verb, noun

dow is spelled D-O-W: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 4.3 times per million words in written English, the 12,397th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Dow, the name). As a verb, dow means “To furnish with a dower; to endow” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in dow?

Letters3: D-O-W
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing4.3 times per million words; the 12,397th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone 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 dow?

Dow appears 4.3 times per million words in written English, the 12,397th most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Dow, the name.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce dow?

  • /daʊ/

Dow 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)-Vealhurl-dow.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with dow

Also written: dah, dhow, dough, dove.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of dow

  • dows present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • dowing participle, present
  • dowed participle, past
  • dought participle, past

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

What does dow mean?

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

verb

  1. 1

    To furnish with a dower; to endow.

  2. 2

    obsoleteTo be worth.

  3. 3

    obsoleteTo thrive, prosper.

noun

as DOW
  1. 1

    Initialism of department of war.

noun

  1. 1

    Alternative form of dhow (“sailing vessel”).

  2. 2

    Alternative form of dah (“Burmese knife”).

  3. 3

    Initialism of day of the week

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

Where does dow come from?

From Middle English dowen, from Old French douer, from Latin dōtō.

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

What to look up after dow