trawl
/tɹɔːl/noun, verb
trawl is spelled T-R-A-W-L: 5 letters. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 44,209th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “trawl vs troll” about 40 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, trawl means “A net or dragnet used for trawling” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of trawl is trawls.
How many letters and syllables are in trawl?
| Letters | 5: T-R-A-W-L |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 44,209th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people 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); 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 trawl?
Trawl appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 44,209th 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 trawl?
- UK /tɹɔːl/
- British /tɹoːl/
- /tɹɔl/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-trawl.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with trawl
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with trawl?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as trawl from its last stressed vowel (/ɔl/, British pronunciation):
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 trawl
- trawls plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- trawling participle, present
- trawled participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does trawl mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A net or dragnet used for trawling.
- 2
A long fishing line having many short lines bearing hooks attached to it; a setline.
- 3
An exhaustive search.
I embarked on a trawl through my uncle's papers in search of his missing will.
verb
- 1
To take (fish or other marine animals) with a trawl.
The fisherman went out to trawl the deep sea for shrimp.
- 2
To fish from a slow-moving boat.
They used a large net to trawl for fish along the coast.
- 3
To make an exhaustive search for something within a defined area.
We need to trawl through the data to find meaningful patterns.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Trawl in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | chaluter , passer au peigne fin |
| Spanish | hacer pescar arrastrera, pescar con red barredera, pescar arrastreramente, pescar al arrastre , rastrear, esculcar |
| German | durchforsten |
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 trawl come from?
16th century, borrowed from Dutch tragelen (“to pull with a towline, trawl”), from Middle Dutch traghelen, from traghel (“dragnet”) (presumably from Latin tragula (“dragnet”)), and as such root-cognate with English drag and dray.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).