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PlainSpell

minnow

min·now/ˈmɪnoʊ/noun, adjective, verb

minnow is spelled M-I-N-N-O-W: 6 letters and 2 syllables (min·now). It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 45,947th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, minnow means “Any of certain small fish” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of minnow is minnows.

How many letters and syllables are in minnow?

Letters6: M-I-N-N-O-W
Syllables2: min·now
In writingabout once in every 2 million words; the 45,947th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Sounds like
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; 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 minnow?

Minnow appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 45,947th 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 minnow?

  • UK /ˈmɪnəʊ/
  • US /ˈmɪnoʊ/

Minnow has 2 syllables, split min·now in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-minnow.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with minnow

Sounds like: mino (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Also written: minnie.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with minnow?

2 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as minnow from its last stressed vowel (/ɪnoʊ/):

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 minnow

  • minnows plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • minnie
  • minny
  • minow
  • menow
  • menoe
  • minnowing participle, present
  • minnowed participle, past

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

What does minnow mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    Any of certain small fish.

  2. 2

    The common minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus), a small freshwater fish of the carp family Cyprinidae which has a green back with black elongated blotches, commonly swimming in large shoals.

  3. 3

    Chiefly with a qualifying word: That fish or any of a number of other (small) fish from the family Cyprinidae.

  4. 4

    USAny of those fish or other small (usually freshwater) fish from other families.

  5. 5

    AustraliaSynonym of galaxiid (“any member of the family Galaxiidae of mostly small freshwater fish of the Southern Hemisphere”); specifically, the common galaxias, inanga, or jollytail (Galaxias maculatus).

  6. 6

    UKSynonym of stickleback (family Gasterosteidae).

  7. 7

    A person or thing of relatively little consequence, importance, or value.

  8. 8

    a team that is considered less skilled and not expected to win many, if any, of its matches.

verb

  1. 1

    To fish for minnows (noun sense 1 and subsenses).

  2. 2

    To fish, especially for trout, using minnows as bait.

adjective

  1. 1

    rareVery small; tiny.

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

Minnow in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchfretin (any small fish), vairon (Phoxinus phoxinus), vaironner (to fish using minnows as bait)
Portuguesepeixinho (any small fish), vairão (Phoxinus phoxinus), peixe pequeno (person or thing of relatively little…)
Spanishpececillo (any small fish), carpa, carpita (Phoxinus phoxinus)
GermanBitterfisch, Elritze, Maipiere, Pfrille (Phoxinus phoxinus)

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 minnow come from?

The noun is derived from Late Middle English menew, menowe (“small fish; (specifically) common minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus); or stickleback (possibly the three-spined stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus)”), from Old English *mynwe, an oblique form of *mynu, a variant of myne (“minnow; small fish”), from Proto-West Germanic *muniwu (“minnow; small fish”), from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“small”). Possibly influenced by Anglo-Norman menu (“small”) and Old French menu (“small”), and English minim (“anything very minute; applied to animalcula and the like”).

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

What to look up after minnow