# screw

> English word · Noun · IPA /skɹuː/ · frequency rank #4,710

## Definitions
1. A device that has a helical function.
2. A device that has a helical function.
3. A device that has a helical function.
4. A device that has a helical function.
5. A device that has a helical function.
6. The motion of screwing something; a turn or twist to one side.
7. A prison guard.
8. An extortioner; a sharp bargainer; a skinflint.
9. An instructor who examines with great or unnecessary severity; also, a searching or strict examination of a student by an instructor.
10. Sexual intercourse; the act of screwing.
11. A casual sexual partner.
12. Salary, wages.
13. Backspin.
14. A small quantity of a material such as salt or tobacco wrapped in twist of paper.
15. An old, worn-out, unsound and worthless horse.
16. A straight line in space with which a definite linear magnitude termed the pitch is associated. It is used to express the displacement of a rigid body, which may always be made to consist of a rotation about an axis combined with a translation parallel to that axis.
17. An amphipod crustacean.
18. Rheumatism.

## Etymology
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. There is also the Old French escruve (“screw”), from Old Dutch *scrūva ("screw"; whence Middle Dutch schruyve (“screw”)), which probably influenced or conflated with the aforementioned, resulting in the Middle English word.
more on the etymology of screw
Old French escroue (whence Medieval Latin scrofa (“nut, screwhole”)), is believed to be an adaptation of Latin scrōfa (“sow, female pig”); but this development is not found in other Romance languages. (For change in meaning, compare also Spanish puerca, Portuguese porca, both ‘sow; screw nut’, and is based on the fact that a boar's penis has a screw-like tip, making the sow's vulva equivalent to a screw nut by analogy).
Old Dutch *scrūva possibly derives from Proto-Germanic *skrūbō (“screw”), from *skru- (“to cut”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keru-, *(s)ker- (“to cut”), and is related to German Schraube (“screw”), Low German schruve, schruwe (“screw”), Dutch schroef (“screw”), West Frisian skroef (“screw”), Danish skrue (“screw”), Swedish skruv (“screw, peg”), Icelandic skrúfa (“screw”).
Compare also Occitan escrofa (“screw nut”), Calabrese scrufina (“screw nut”), which may be borrowings of the Old French word, or parallel developments.

## Easily confused with
- **sew** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/screw-vs-sew)
- **sure** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/screw-vs-sure)
- **sore** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/screw-vs-sore)
- **stew** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/screw-vs-stew)
- **sire** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/screw-vs-sire)
- **slew** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/screw-vs-slew)
- **skew** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/screw-vs-skew)
- **spew** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/screw-vs-spew)
- **straw** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/screw-vs-straw)
- **scrub** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/screw-vs-scrub)
- **spree** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/screw-vs-spree)
- **siren** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/screw-vs-siren)
- **shred** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/screw-vs-shred)
- **Shrek** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/screw-vs-shrek)
- **scrum** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/screw-vs-scrum)
- **shrew** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/screw-vs-shrew)
- **strep** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/screw-vs-strep)
- **scrip** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/screw-vs-scrip)
- **secret** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/screw-vs-secret)
- **shrewd** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/screw-vs-shrewd)

## Common misspellings (8)
`csrew`, `sccrew`, `scerw`, `screww`, `scrrew`, `scrwe`, `srcew`, `sscrew`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/screw