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PlainSpell

screw

/ˈskɹu/noun, verb

screw is spelled S-C-R-E-W: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 18 times per million words in written English, the 4,667th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, screw means “A simple machine, a helical inclined plane” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of screw is screws.

How many letters and syllables are in screw?

Letters5: S-C-R-E-W
Syllables1
In writing18 times per million words; the 4,667th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
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 screw?

Screw appears 18 times per million words in written English, the 4,667th 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 screw?

  • UK /ˈskɹuː/
  • British /ˈskɹʉw/
  • US /ˈskɹu/

Screw has one syllable.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-screw.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with screw?

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

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 screw

  • screws plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • screwing participle, present
  • screwed past, participle

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

What does screw mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A simple machine, a helical inclined plane.

  2. 2

    A (usually) metal fastener consisting of a partially or completely threaded shank, sometimes with a threaded point, and a head used to both hold the top material and to drive the screw either directly into a soft material or into a prepared hole.

  3. 3

    A ship's propeller.

  4. 4

    An Archimedes screw.

  5. 5

    A steam vessel propelled by a screw instead of wheels.

  6. 6

    The motion of screwing something; a turn or twist to one side.

  7. 7

    derogatoryslangA prison guard.

    And that's how it came to pass that on the second-to-last day of the job, the convict crew that tarred the plate factory roof in the spring of forty-nine wound up sitting in a row at ten o'clock in the morning drinking icy cold, Bohemia-sty

  8. 8

    derogatoryslangAn extortioner; a sharp bargainer; a skinflint.

verb

  1. 1

    To connect or assemble pieces using a screw.

  2. 2

    slangvulgarTo have sexual intercourse with.

  3. 3

    slangTo cheat someone or ruin their chances in a game or other situation.

  4. 4

    To extort or practice extortion upon; to oppress by unreasonable or extortionate exactions; to put the screws on.

  5. 5

    To contort.

  6. 6

    To miskick (a ball) by hitting it with the wrong part of the foot.

  7. 7

    To screw back.

  8. 8

    USdatedslangTo examine (a student) rigidly; to subject to a severe examination.

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

Screw in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
GermanSchraube (simple machine), Schiffsschraube (ship’s propeller), Wächter, Aufpasser (prison guard), schrauben, anziehen (to connect or assemble pieces using a screw)
Portugueseparafuso (simple machine), hélice (ship’s propeller), aparafusar, parafusar (to connect or assemble pieces using a screw), tarraxa (fastener), trepada (act of screwing)
Frenchhélice (ship’s propeller), vis (fastener), visser (act of screwing), baiser, coucher avec, fourrer (to have sexual intercourse with)
Spanishhélice (ship’s propeller), atornillar, enroscar (to connect or assemble pieces using a screw), tornillo, tirafondo, bulón (fastener)

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 screw come from?

From Middle English screw, scrue (“screw”); apparently, despite the difference in meaning, from Old French escroue (“nut, cylindrical socket, screwhole”), from Latin scrōfa (“female pig”) through comparison with the corkscrew shape of a pig's penis.

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

What to look up after screw