grew
/ɡɹu/verb
grew is spelled G-R-E-W: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 49 times per million words in written English, the 2,072nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, grew means “simple past of grow” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in grew?
| Letters | 4: G-R-E-W |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 49 times per million words; the 2,072nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| 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 grew?
Grew appears 49 times per million words in written English, the 2,072nd 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 grew?
- UK /ɡɹuː/
- British /ɡɹʉw/
- US /ɡɹu/
Grew 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-grew.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with grew?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as grew from its last stressed vowel (/u/):
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 grew
- grews present, singular, he/she/it
- grewing participle, present
- grewed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does grew mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
simple past of grow
- 2
colloquialnonstandardpast participle of grow
- 3
Alternative form of grue (“shudder with fear”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does grew come from?
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.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).