sew
/soʊ/verb
sew is spelled S-E-W: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 2.8 times per million words in written English, the 16,005th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “sew vs sow” about 1,000 times a month (Google, United States). As a verb, sew means “To use a needle to pass thread repeatedly through (pieces of fabric) in order to join them together” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in sew?
| Letters | 3: S-E-W |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 |
| In writing | 2.8 times per million words; the 16,005th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| 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); 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 sew?
Sew appears 2.8 times per million words in written English, the 16,005th 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 sew?
- UK /səʊ/
- US /soʊ/
- Australia /səʉ/
As a verb (“To drain the water from”): /sjuː/, /suː/.
Sew has one syllable.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-sew.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with sew
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: seau, so, soe, soh (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: sow.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with sew?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as sew from its last stressed vowel (/oʊ/):
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 sew
- sews present, singular, he/she/it
- sewing participle, present
- sewed past, participle, singular, he/she/it, plural
- sewn participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does sew mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To use a needle to pass thread repeatedly through (pieces of fabric) in order to join them together.
I sewed a button on.
- 2
To use a needle to pass thread repeatedly through pieces of fabric in order to join them together.
- 3
Followed by into: to enclose by sewing.
to sew money into a bag
- 4
obsoleteTo drain the water from.
- 5
Of a ship, to be grounded.
noun
- 1
obsoleteBroth, gravy.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Sew in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense (transitive) use a needle:
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 sew come from?
From Middle English sewen, sowen, from Old English siwian, seowian, seowan (“to sew, mend, patch, knit together, link, unite”), from Proto-Germanic *siwjaną (“to sew”), from Proto-Indo-European *syewH- (“to sew”). Cognate with Scots sew, North Frisian saie, sei, Saterland Frisian säie, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish sy, and, more distantly, Polish szyć, Russian шить (šitʹ), Latin suō, Sanskrit सीव्यति (sī́vyati). Related to seam.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).