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PlainSpell

flow

UK /ˈfləʊ̯/noun, verb

flow is spelled F-L-O-W: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 48 times per million words in written English, the 2,113th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “floe vs flow” about 30 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, flow means “Movement in people or things characterized with a continuous motion, involving either a non solid mass or a multitude” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of flow is flows.

How many letters and syllables are in flow?

Letters4: F-L-O-W
Syllables1
In writing48 times per million words; the 2,113th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is flow?

Flow appears 48 times per million words in written English, the 2,113th 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 flow?

  • UK /ˈfləʊ̯/
  • UK [ˈfləʊ̯]
  • UK /ˈflɵʊ̯/

Flow has one syllable.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-flow.wav, En-us-flow.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with flow

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

floe vs flow30 G

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with flow?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as flow from its last stressed vowel (/əʊ/, British pronunciation):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: wolf, fowl.

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 flow

  • flows plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • flowing participle, present
  • flowed participle, past

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

What does flow mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    Movement in people or things characterized with a continuous motion, involving either a non solid mass or a multitude.

  2. 2

    The movement of a real or figurative fluid.

  3. 3

    A formalization of the idea of the motion of particles in a fluid, as a group action of the real numbers on a set.

    The notion of flow is basic to the study of ordinary differential equations.

  4. 4

    The rising movement of the tide.

  5. 5

    Smoothness or continuity.

    The room was small, but it had good symmetry and flow.

  6. 6

    The amount of a fluid that moves or the rate of fluid movement.

    Turn on the valve and make sure you have sufficient flow.

  7. 7

    A flow pipe, carrying liquid away from a boiler or other central plant (compare with return pipe which returns fluid to central plant).

  8. 8

    A mental state characterized by concentration, focus, and enjoyment of a given task.

  9. 9

    ScotlandA bog or mire, especially a rough, waterlogged one.

    Had been roughly laid with bog-wood dug from the flowes,

verb

  1. 1

    To move as a fluid from one position to another.

    Rivers flow from springs and lakes.

  2. 2

    To proceed; to issue forth; to emanate.

    Wealth flows from industry and economy.

  3. 3

    To move or match smoothly, gracefully, or continuously.

    The writing is grammatically correct, but it just doesn't flow.

  4. 4

    To have or be in abundance; to abound, so as to run or flow over.

  5. 5

    To hang loosely and wave.

    a flowing mantle

  6. 6

    To rise, as the tide; opposed to ebb.

    The tide flows twice in twenty-four hours.

  7. 7

    To arrange (text in a wordprocessor, etc.) so that it wraps neatly into a designated space; to reflow.

  8. 8

    To allow (a liquid) to flow.

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

Flow in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchécoulement, flux (the movement of a fluid), couler (to move as a fluid)
GermanFluss (the movement of a fluid), fließen, rinnen (to move as a fluid), Flut (the rising movement of the tide), Tätigkeitsrausch (being at one with)
Portuguesefluxo, escoamento, caudal (the movement of a fluid), fluir (to move as a fluid), fluxo da maré (the rising movement of the tide), fluidez (smoothness or continuity)
Spanishflujo (the movement of a fluid), fluir (to move as a fluid), caudal (rate of fluid movement)

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 flow come from?

From Middle English flowe, from the verb (see below). The psychology sense “state of focus” was coined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in 1975.

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

What to look up after flow