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PlainSpell

how

/haʊ/adverb, conjunction, interjection, noun

how is spelled H-O-W: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 1,738 times per million words in written English, the 70th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adverb, how means “To what degree or extent” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in how?

Letters3: H-O-W
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing1,738 times per million words; the 70th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

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 how?

How appears 1,738 times per million words in written English, the 70th 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 how?

  • UK /haʊ/
  • /huː/
  • US /haʊ/

How 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-uk-how.ogg, En-us-how.ogg, En-How.oga, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with how

Also written: howe.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with how?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as how from its last stressed vowel (/aʊ/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: who.

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 how

  • 'ow
  • hoo
  • hows plural
  • how's plural
  • howe
  • howgh

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

What does how mean?

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

adverb

  1. 1

    To what degree or extent.

    How often do you practice?

  2. 2

    In what manner

  3. 3

    By what means.

    How do you solve this puzzle? –Sorry, I can't remember how.

  4. 4

    With overtones of why, for what reason.

    How should I know whether he likes raisins or not? Ask him!

  5. 5

    In what form, shape, measure, quantity, etc.

    How are you fixed for money?

  6. 6

    With what meaning or effect.

    How the stock market interprets events has real consequences.

  7. 7

    By what title or what name.

  8. 8

    At what price, for what amount (of money).

conjunction

  1. 1

    informalUsed to state that something is in a certain way or state.

    She told me how her father was a doctor.

interjection

  1. 1

    USWhat?, pardon?

  2. 2

    A greeting, used in representations of Native American speech.

noun

  1. 1

    The means by which something is accomplished.

    I am not interested in the why, but in the how.

  2. 2

    An artificial barrow or tumulus; in later folklore, associated with fairies.

  3. 3

    In northern England, a low hill.

noun

as How
  1. 1

    radiotelephony clear-code word for the letter H.

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

How in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcomment (to what degree – see also to the point), comme, que (used as a modifier to indicate surprise…)
Germanwie (to what degree – see also to the point)
Portuguesequanto, o quanto (to what degree – see also to the point), que, quão (used as a modifier to indicate surprise…), como (in what manner – see also how so)
Spanish“cómo de”/“qué tan”/cuán, cada cuánto (tiempo), lo (to what degree – see also to the point), cómo, de qué manera/modo/forma (in what manner – see also how so)

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 how come from?

From Middle English how, hou, hu, hwu, from Old English hū, from Proto-West Germanic *hwō, from Proto-Germanic *hwō (“through what, how”), from the same root as hwæt (“who, what”). /hw/ > /h/ due to wh-cluster reduction in Old English; compare who, which underwent this change later, and thus is spelt wh (Middle English spelling of /hw/) but pronounced /h/ (it previously had a different vowel, hence avoided the spelling and sound change in Old English).

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

What to look up after how