prow
/pɹaʊ/
"prow" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“prow” is uncommon English (frequency #66,959 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #66,959
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The front part of a vessel.
Corpus desk
Index EN-prow · prow · English
prow · rank #66,959 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #66,959
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH provolone
Nearest frequency peer: provolone (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “prow”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- proffer
proffer
33,047 corpus weight
- prospective…
prospectively
33,045 corpus weight
- provolone
provolone
33,043 corpus weight
- prow
prow
33,042 corpus weight
- prunus
prunus
33,041 corpus weight
- père
père
33,039 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “prow” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | prow |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /pɹaʊ/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #66,959 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “prow” in English
Rare enough to double-check
prow is uncommon English at frequency #66,959 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /pɹaʊ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for prow in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle French proue, proe, from Ligurian prua, proa, from Latin prōra, from Ancient Greek πρῷρα (prōîra). The correct English form is prow, spelled P-R-O-W.
Definition
- 1The front part of a vessel.
- 2A vessel.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how prow appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The floating vessel swum / Uplifted, and secure with beaked prow / rode tilting o'er the waves.
We were already rather close in; but I ordered the U-33's prow turned inshore and we crept slowly along, constantly dipping up the water and tasting it to assure ourselves that we didn't get outside the fresh-water current.
Etymology
From Middle French proue, proe, from Ligurian prua, proa, from Latin prōra, from Ancient Greek πρῷρα (prōîra).
This word in other languages
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
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "prow", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).