drove
/dɹoʊv/noun, verb
drove is spelled D-R-O-V-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 23 times per million words in written English, the 3,875th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, drove means “The herd being driven in a cattle (or other animal) drive; thus, a number of animals driven to market or new pastures; a group of livestock animals…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of drove is droves.
How many letters and syllables are in drove?
| Letters | 5: D-R-O-V-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 23 times per million words; the 3,875th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| 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 drove?
Drove appears 23 times per million words in written English, the 3,875th 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 drove?
- UK /dɹəʊv/
- US /dɹoʊv/
Drove 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-uk-drove.ogg, En-us-drove.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with drove?
11 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as drove from its last stressed vowel (/oʊv/):
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 drove
- droves plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- droving participle, present
- droved participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does drove mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The herd being driven in a cattle (or other animal) drive; thus, a number of animals driven to market or new pastures; a group of livestock animals more generally.
- 2
A large number of people on the move.
in droves
- 3
A group of other animals, especially hares when seen in coursing or hunting.
- 4
A road or track along which cattle are habitually, used to be or could be driven; a droveway.
- 5
A narrow drain or channel used in the irrigation of land.
- 6
A broad chisel used to bring stone to a nearly smooth surface.
- 7
The grooved surface of stone finished by the drove chisel.
verb
- 1
To herd cattle; particularly over a long distance.
- 2
To finish (stone) with a drove chisel.
- 3
simple past of drive
- 4
past participle of drive
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Drove in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | troupeau, manade, horde , foule |
| German | Herde , Schar |
| Spanish | manada, tropa (Arg., Bol., Par. and Ur.), arreo, recua , legión, tropel |
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 drove come from?
From Middle English drove, drof, draf, from Old English drāf (“action of driving; a driving out, expulsion; drove, herd, band; company, band; road along which cattle are driven”), from Proto-Germanic *draibō (“a drive, push, movement, drove”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰreybʰ- (“to drive, push”). Cognate with Scots drave, dreef (“drove, crowd”), Dutch dreef (“a walkway, wide road with trees, drove”), Middle High German treip (“a drove”), Swedish drev (“a drive, drove”), Icelandic dreif (“a scattering, distribution”). More at drive.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).