# drown

> English word · Verb · IPA /dɹaʊn/ · frequency rank #11,534

## Definitions
1. To die from suffocation while immersed in water or other fluid.
2. To kill by suffocating in water or another liquid.
3. To be flooded: to be inundated with or submerged in (literally) water or (figuratively) other things; to be overwhelmed.
4. To inundate, submerge, overwhelm.
5. To obscure, particularly amid an overwhelming volume of other items.

## Etymology
From Middle English drownen, drounen, drunen (“to drown”), of obscure and uncertain origin.
The OED suggests an unattested Old English form *drūnian. Harper 2001 points to Old English druncnian, ġedruncnian (> Middle English drunknen, dronknen (“to drown”)), "probably influenced" by Old Norse drukkna (cf. Icelandic drukkna, Danish drukne (“to drown”)). Funk & Wagnall's has 'of uncertain origin'. It has been theorised (see e.g. ODS) that it may represent a direct loan of Old Norse drukkna, but this is described by the OED as being "on phonetic and other grounds [...] highly improbable", unless one considers the possibility of an unattested variant in Old Norse *drunkna.

## Easily confused with
- **drowns** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/drown-vs-drowns)
- **drowsy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/drown-vs-drowsy)
- **drowned** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/drown-vs-drowned)
- **don** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/don-vs-drown)
- **dow** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dow-vs-drown)
- **down** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/down-vs-drown)
- **drop** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/drop-vs-drown)
- **draw** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/draw-vs-drown)
- **drew** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/drew-vs-drown)
- **dawn** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dawn-vs-drown)
- **Dion** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dion-vs-drown)
- **dowd** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dowd-vs-drown)
- **doon** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/doon-vs-drown)
- **drawn** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/drawn-vs-drown)
- **drove** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/drove-vs-drown)
- **drops** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/drops-vs-drown)
- **draws** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/draws-vs-drown)
- **drain** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/drain-vs-drown)
- **drone** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/drone-vs-drown)
- **downs** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/downs-vs-drown)

## Common misspellings (8)
`ddrown`, `dorwn`, `dronw`, `drownn`, `drowwn`, `drrown`, `drwon`, `rdown`

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