plowed

/plaʊd/

//plaʊd// verb

"plowed" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“plowed” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #31,708 in English word frequency and used as a verb.

#31,708
frequency rank, English
6
letters
9
tracked misspellings
14
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - simple past and past participle of plow

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

plowed vs power
67% similar
plowed vs posed
67% similar
plowed vs poked
67% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for plowed
PropertyValue
Headwordplowed
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
IPA/plaʊd/
Letters6
Frequency rank#31,708
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs14
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “plowed” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). plowed lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for plowed is 6 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /plaʊd/. Corpus data places it at rank #31,708 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "simple past and past participle of plow".

Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for plowed, with forms such as "lpowed", "pllowed", and "ploewd". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 14 confusable-pair relationships, "power", "posed", "poked", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is plowed, spelled P-L-O-W-E-D.

Definition

  1. 1
    simple past and past participle of plow

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: lpowed,pllowed,ploewd,plowde,plowedd,plowwed,plwoed,polwed,pplowed

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of plowed - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

lpowed2pllowed1ploewd2plowde2plowedd1plowwed1plwoed2polwed2
Edit distance from "plowed"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "plowed"?
"plowed" is spelled P-L-O-W-E-D. The IPA pronunciation is /plaʊd/.
What does "plowed" mean?
As a verb, "plowed" means: simple past and past participle of plow
What words are commonly confused with "plowed"?
"plowed" is commonly confused with "power", "posed", "poked". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "plowed"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "plowed" is /plaʊd/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "plowed" come from?
"plowed" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “plowed”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is P-L-O-W-E-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as /plaʊd/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • Don't mix it up with “power” - see the side-by-side comparison. plowed vs power
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list