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PlainSpell

tow

/toʊ/verb, noun

tow is spelled T-O-W: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 5.2 times per million words in written English, the 10,843rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “toe vs tow” about 20 times a month (Google, United States). As a verb, tow means “To pull something behind one, such as by using a line, chain, or tongue” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in tow?

Letters3: T-O-W
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing5.2 times per million words; the 10,843rd 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 tow?

Tow appears 5.2 times per million words in written English, the 10,843rd 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 tow?

  • UK /təʊ/
  • US /toʊ/
  • /to/

As a noun (“An untwisted bundle of fibres such as cellulose acetate…”): /təʊ/, /toʊ/, /taʊ/.

Tow 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-tow.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-tow2.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with tow

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

toe vs tow20 G

Sounds like: toe (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 tow?

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

Spelled with the same letters in another order: two, wot, owt.

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 tow

  • tows present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • towing participle, present
  • towed participle, past

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

What does tow mean?

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

verb

  1. 1

    To pull something behind one, such as by using a line, chain, or tongue.

    Near-synonyms: draw, haul, pull, trail

  2. 2

    To aid someone behind by shielding them from wind resistance.

noun

  1. 1

    The act of towing and the condition of being towed.

    It isn't the car's battery; I think I need a tow.

  2. 2

    Something, such as a tugboat, that tows.

  3. 3

    Something, such as a barge, that is towed.

  4. 4

    A rope or cable used in towing.

  5. 5

    A speed increase given by driving in front of another car on a straight, which causes a slipstream for the car behind.

  6. 6

    An untwisted bundle of fibres such as cellulose acetate, flax, hemp or jute.

  7. 7

    The short, coarse, less desirable fibres separated by hackling from the finer longer fibres (line).

noun

as TOW
  1. 1

    Initialism of tube-launched, optically tracked, wire-guided: a kind of antitank missile.

phrase

as TOW
  1. 1

    slangInitialism of The One with ... or The One Where ...: used to refer to episodes of the American television sitcom Friends.

    TOW the Prom Video

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

Tow in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchtracter, remorquer (pull something using a line), remorquage (act of towing), câble de remorquage, corde de remorquage (cable used in towing), étoupe (bundle of fibers)
Germanziehen, schleppen, abschleppen, treideln (pull something using a line), Schleppen, Abschleppen (act of towing)
Portugueserebocar (pull something using a line), reboque (act of towing), estopa (bundle of fibers), rebocador (something that tows)
Spanishremolcar, tractar (pull something using a line), remolque (act of towing), cable (cable used in towing), remolcador (something that tows)

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 tow come from?

From Middle English towen, from Old English togian (“to tow”), from Proto-West Germanic *togōn, from Proto-Germanic *tugōną (“to draw, pull”), from Proto-Indo-European *dewk- (“to draw, pull; to lead”).

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

What to look up after tow