eau
/juː/noun
eau is spelled E-A-U: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.4 times per million words in written English, the 23,835th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, eau means “Alternative form of ea” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of eau is eaus.
How many letters and syllables are in eau?
| Letters | 3: E-A-U |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.4 times per million words; the 23,835th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Sounds like | |
| 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 eau?
Eau appears 1.4 times per million words in written English, the 23,835th 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 eau?
- /juː/
As a noun (“Water”): /oʊ/.
Eau 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-eau.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with eau
Sounds like: ewe, u, yew (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: ea.
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with eau?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as eau from its last stressed vowel (/oʊ/):
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 eau
- eaus plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does eau mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Alternative form of ea.
- 2
Water.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does eau come from?
From Middle English ea, eo, from Old English ēa (“running water, water, stream, river”), from Proto-Germanic *ahwō (“waters, river”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ekʷeh₂ (“water, flowing water”). Compare English aqua. Compare ea, yeo. Related to, and spelling influenced by, but not derived from French eau (“water”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).