# drove

> English word · Noun · IPA /dɹəʊv/ · frequency rank #3,876

## Definitions
1. A cattle drive or the herd being driven by it; thus, a number of cattle driven to market or new pastures.
2. A large number of people on the move.
3. A group of hares.
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.

## Etymology
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.

## Easily confused with
- **drown** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/drove-vs-drown)
- **Druze** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/drove-vs-druze)
- **droves** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/drove-vs-droves)
- **doe** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/doe-vs-drove)
- **Dre** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dre-vs-drove)
- **done** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/done-vs-drove)
- **drop** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/drop-vs-drove)
- **Dave** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dave-vs-drove)
- **dose** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dose-vs-drove)
- **dive** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dive-vs-drove)
- **dome** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dome-vs-drove)
- **dope** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dope-vs-drove)
- **dove** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dove-vs-drove)
- **dole** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dole-vs-drove)
- **doge** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/doge-vs-drove)
- **doze** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/doze-vs-drove)
- **Dore** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dore-vs-drove)
- **drive** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/drive-vs-drove)
- **drops** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/drops-vs-drove)
- **drone** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/drone-vs-drove)

## Common misspellings (7)
`ddrove`, `dorve`, `droev`, `drovve`, `drrove`, `drvoe`, `rdove`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/drove