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PlainSpell

own

UK /əʊn/adjective, verb, noun

own is spelled O-W-N: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 550 times per million words in written English, the 179th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, own means “Belonging to; possessed; acquired and designated by; proper to; property of; titled to; held in one's name; under/using the name of. Often marks a…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in own?

Letters3: O-W-N
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing550 times per million words; the 179th 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 own?

Own appears 550 times per million words in written English, the 179th 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 own?

  • UK /əʊn/
  • /aːn/
  • UK /aʊn/

Own 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-own.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with own?

3 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as own from its last stressed vowel (/əʊn/, British pronunciation):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: now, won.

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 own

  • ain
  • 'n informal
  • owns present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • owning participle, present
  • owned participle, past

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

What does own mean?

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

adjective

  1. 1

    Belonging to; possessed; acquired and designated by; proper to; property of; titled to; held in one's name; under/using the name of. Often marks a possessive determiner as reflexive, referring back to the subject of the clause or sentence.

  2. 2

    Not shared.

    When we move into the new house, the kids will each have their own bedroom.

  3. 3

    obsoletePeculiar, domestic.

  4. 4

    obsoleteNot foreign.

verb

  1. 1

    To have rightful possession of (property, goods or capital); to have legal title to; to acquire a property or asset.

    I own this car.

  2. 2

    To have recognized political sovereignty over a place, territory, as distinct from the ordinary connotation of property ownership.

    The United States owns Point Roberts by the terms of the Treaty of Oregon.

  3. 3

    informalTo defeat or embarrass; to overwhelm.

    I will own my enemies.

  4. 4

    To virtually or figuratively enslave.

  5. 5

    slangTo defeat, dominate, or be above.

  6. 6

    slangTo illicitly obtain administrative access to a computer system, thereby having full access to all the files thereon (including executables).

  7. 7

    slangTo be very good.

  8. 8

    To admit, concede, grant, allow; not to deny.

noun

  1. 1

    A crushing insult.

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

Own in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchpropre (belonging to (determiner)), posséder, avoir (have rightful possession of)
Germaneigen (belonging to (determiner)), besitzen, haben (have rightful possession of), eingestehen, zugeben (acknowledge responsibility for)
Portuguesepróprio (belonging to (determiner)), possuir (have rightful possession of)
Spanishpropio (belonging to (determiner)), poseer, tener (have rightful possession of), reconocer, admitir (acknowledge responsibility for)

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 own come from?

From Middle English oun, owen, from Old English āgen (“own, proper, peculiar”), originally the past participle of āgan; from Proto-West Germanic *aigan (“own”), from Proto-Germanic *aiganaz (“own”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyḱ- (“to have, possess”). Doublet of eigen-.

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

What to look up after own