glow

/ɡloʊ/verb, noun

glow is spelled G-L-O-W: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 8.1 times per million words in written English, the 8,146th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, glow means “To emit heat and light without a flame” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in glow?

Letters	4: G-L-O-W
Syllables	1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing	8.1 times per million words; the 8,146th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched	none measured in search
Rhymes with	show though oh ago more

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 glow?

Glow appears 8.1 times per million words in written English, the 8,146th most frequent word form in the list.

glow0.0010.010.11101001,00010,000

rarerper million words of written Englishmore common

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce glow?

UK /ɡləʊ/
US /ɡloʊ/

Glow 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-us-glow.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with glow?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as glow 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 glow

glows present, singular, he/she/it, plural
glowing participle, present
glowed past, participle, singular, he/she/it, plural

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

What does glow mean?

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

verb

1
To emit heat and light without a flame.
Iron glows red hot when heated to near its melting point.
2
Of a fire: to emit heat and light.
The fire was still glowing after ten hours.
3
To emit light brightly and steadily as if heated to a high temperature; to shine.
4
To be very hot; also, to be on fire; to burn.
5
Of a colour: to be bright; also, of a thing: to have a bright colour.
The new baby’s room glows with bright, loving colours.
6
Of a person: to display intense emotion.
a healthy glow
7
Of a person's body or a part of it: to feel hot and often to flush (“become suffused with a reddish colour”) as well, due to an emotional response, exertion, etc.
After their workout, the gymnasts’ faces were glowing.
8
USTo be involved in an (chiefly online) undercover sting operation, especially by American federal agencies.
9
To look intently; to stare.

noun

1
A state of heat and light being emitted by a hot object.
2
A state of heat being emitted by a person or an animal's body.
3
A state of light being emitted by something (for example, a bioluminescent animal or fungus, or a mineral) which is not hot; luminescence.
4
A state of brightness or warmth of colour; specifically, a reddish colour on a person's face indicating health or youth; a flush.
He had a bright red glow on his face.
5
A condition of being passionate or having warm feelings; an ardour.