kowtow
/ˈkaʊˌtaʊ/verb, noun
kowtow is spelled K-O-W-T-O-W. The wrong spelling people search most is cowtow: about 390 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 2 in 10 of all searches for the word. Kowtow is a verb meaning “To kneel and bow low enough to touch one’s forehead to the ground”.
How many letters and syllables are in kowtow?
| Letters | 6: K-O-W-T-O-W |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 7 million words; the 78,613th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, cowtow, about 390 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
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); 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).
How do you spell kowtow?
Kowtow is spelled K-O-W-T-O-W. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 2 in 10 of the searches for kowtow in either form.
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). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is kowtow?
Kowtow appears about once in every 7 million words in written English, the 78,613th 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 kowtow?
- /ˈkaʊˌtaʊ/
Kowtow has 2 syllables (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-kowtow.ogg, En-au-kowtow.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of kowtow
- kowtows present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- kowtowing participle, present
- kowtowed participle, past
- kotow
- ko-tow
- kow-tow
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does kowtow mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To kneel and bow low enough to touch one’s forehead to the ground.
- 2
To grovel, act in a very submissive manner; to show obeisance to (someone or something) in such a manner; to bow.
- 3
To bow very deeply.
noun
- 1
The act of kowtowing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Kowtow in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | se prosterner, s'agenouiller , kowtow |
| German | einen Kotau machen , kriechen, kuschen, katzbuckeln, dienern, zu Kreuze kriechen |
| Portuguese | fazer o kowtow, reverenciar , kowtow , prostrar-se |
| Spanish | postrarse, prostrarse (disused) , postración |
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 kowtow come from?
From either Cantonese 叩頭 /叩头 (kau³ tau⁴) or Mandarin 叩頭 /叩头 (kòutóu). Literally, “knock head”.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).