sparrow
/ˈspæɹoʊ/noun
sparrow is spelled S-P-A-R-R-O-W: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 3.0 times per million words in written English, the 15,368th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, sparrow means “The house sparrow, Passer domesticus; a small bird with a short bill, and brown, white and gray feathers” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of sparrow is sparrows.
How many letters and syllables are in sparrow?
| Letters | 7: S-P-A-R-R-O-W |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.0 times per million words; the 15,368th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with |
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is sparrow?
Sparrow appears 3.0 times per million words in written English, the 15,368th 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 sparrow?
- UK /ˈspæɹəʊ/
- British /ˈspaɹəw/
- US /ˈspæɹoʊ/
Sparrow has 2 syllables (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-ne-sparrow.ogg, En-us-sparrow.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with sparrow?
9 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as sparrow from its last stressed vowel (/æɹoʊ/):
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 sparrow
- sparrows plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does sparrow mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The house sparrow, Passer domesticus; a small bird with a short bill, and brown, white and gray feathers.
- 2
A member of the family Passeridae, comprising small Old World songbirds.
- 3
A member of the family Passerellidae (or Emberizidae, under classification systems that subsume the New World sparrows under Emberizidae), comprising small New World songbirds.
- 4
Generically, any small, nondescript bird.
- 5
UKA quick-witted, lively person.
cockney sparrow
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Sparrow in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | moineau , bruant , piaf |
| German | Sperling, Spatz |
| Portuguese | pardal , escrevedeira , passarinho |
| Spanish | pasérido, gorrión, pardal , pájaro |
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 sparrow come from?
From Middle English sparewe, sparowe, sparu, sparwe, spearewe, sperrewe, from Old English spearwa, from Proto-West Germanic *sparwō, from Proto-Germanic *sparwô, from Proto-Indo-European *spḗr (“sparrow”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).