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PlainSpell

row

/ɹoʊ/noun, verb

row is spelled R-O-W: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 40 times per million words in written English, the 2,487th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “roe vs row” about 10 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, row means “A line of objects, often regularly spaced, such as seats in a theatre, vegetable plants in a garden, etc” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of row is rows.

How many letters and syllables are in row?

Letters3: R-O-W
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing40 times per million words; the 2,487th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
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); 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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is row?

Row appears 40 times per million words in written English, the 2,487th 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 row?

  • UK /ɹəʊ/
  • US /ɹoʊ/
  • /ɾo/

As a noun (“A noisy argument”): /ɹaʊ/.

Row 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-row.ogg, En-us-row-fight.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with row

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

roe vs row10 G

Sounds like: Rowe, rho, roe (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with row?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as row from its last stressed vowel (/oʊ/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: wor.

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 row

  • rows plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • rew
  • rowing participle, present
  • rowed participle, past

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

What does row mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A line of objects, often regularly spaced, such as seats in a theatre, vegetable plants in a garden, etc.

  2. 2

    Specifically, a line of buildings on a street; also, the street itself (especially in street names)

  3. 3

    A horizontal line of entries in a table, etc., going from left to right, as opposed to a column going from top to bottom.

  4. 4

    slangClipping of cornrow.

  5. 5

    An act or instance of rowing.

    I went for an early-morning row.

  6. 6

    Any of several thematically similar exercise movements performed with a pulling motion of the arms towards the back.

  7. 7

    UKA noisy argument.

    There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

  8. 8

    UKA continual loud noise.

    Who's making that row?

verb

  1. 1

    To propel (a boat or other craft) over water using oars.

  2. 2

    To transport in a boat propelled with oars.

    to row the captain ashore in his barge

  3. 3

    To be moved by oars.

    The boat rows easily.

  4. 4

    To argue noisily.

noun

as ROW
  1. 1

    Initialism of run of week.

  2. 2

    Initialism of rest of world.

  3. 3

    Initialism of right of way.

noun

as RoW
  1. 1

    Initialism of rest of world

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

Row in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchligne, rang, rangée (line of objects), ramer (transitive: propel over water using oars), voguer (intransitive: propel a boat or other craft over…)
GermanReihe (line of objects), rudern (transitive: propel over water using oars), Zeile (in a table), Rudern (exercise), Streit, Auseinandersetzung (noisy argument)
Portuguesefileira, eito (line of objects), remar (transitive: propel over water using oars), vogar (intransitive: propel a boat or other craft over…), linha (in a table), remo (exercise)
Spanishfila, línea, hilera, pista, renglón (line of objects), remar (transitive: propel over water using oars)

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 row come from?

From Middle English rewe, rowe, rawe, from Old English rǣw, rāw, probably from Proto-Germanic *raiwō, *raigwō, *rīgǭ (“row, streak, line”), from Proto-Indo-European *Hreyk- (“to carve, scratch, etch”).

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

What to look up after row