grew
/ɡɹuː/
"grew" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“grew” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,072 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #2,072
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - simple past of grow
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | grew |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ɡɹuː/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #2,072 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “grew” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for grew is 4 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɡɹuː/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,072 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for grew, with forms such as "gerw", "ggrew", and "greww". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "GRU", "gro", "grr", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English grew, from Old English grēow (first and third person past tense of grōwan), from West Germanic *greu, from Northwest Germanic *grerō, from Proto-Germanic *gegrō (first and third person past tense of *grōaną), reduplication of *grōaną. The correct English form is grew, spelled G-R-E-W.
Definition
- 1simple past of grow
- 2past participle of grow
Etymology
From Middle English grew, from Old English grēow (first and third person past tense of grōwan), from West Germanic *greu, from Northwest Germanic *grerō, from Proto-Germanic *gegrō (first and third person past tense of *grōaną), reduplication of *grōaną.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: gerw,ggrew,greww,grrew,grwe,rgew
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of grew - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “grew”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is G-R-E-W - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɡɹuː/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “GRU” - see the side-by-side comparison. grew vs GRU
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.