bow

\ˈboʊ\

/\ˈboʊ\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“bow” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #35,405) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#35,405
frequency rank, French
4,251
“B” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Arc.

Corpus desk

Index FR-bow · bow · French

bow · rank #35,405 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #35,405
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,251
  • PHOTO-FINISH Bossuet

Nearest frequency peer: Bossuet (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « bow »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « bow » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

bow vs by
33% similar
bow vs bu
33% similar
bow vs Br
0% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for bow
PropertyValue
Headwordbow
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ˈboʊ\
Letters3
Frequency rank#35,405
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « bow »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.bowse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « Bossuet » (#35,404), « brandit » (#35,406), « bordant » (#35,403). Parmi 4,251 lemmes en « B », « bow » est au #35,405. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for bow is neighbouring look-alikes ("by", "bu", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \ˈboʊ\. Frequency #35,405 among 4,251 “B” headwords. 8 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for bow, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "by", "bu", "Br", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is bow, spelled B-O-W.

Definition

  1. 1
    Arc.
  2. 2
    Archet (pour violons par exemple).
  3. 3
    Méandre.
  4. 4
    Joug.
  5. 5
    Nœud à deux ganses, de type nœud de lacet ou nœud de paquet-cadeau.
  6. 6
    Extrémité recourbée des branches de lunettes qui passe derrière les oreilles.
  7. 7
    Quadrant rudimentaire utilisé pour relever l’altitude du soleil sur la mer.
  8. 8
    Anneau d’une clef.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how bow appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. A bow and arrows.
  2. The composition of a violin bow is very important.

Synonyms

arcbendcurvefiddlestick

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "bow"?
"bow" is spelled B-O-W. The IPA pronunciation is \ˈboʊ\.
What does "bow" mean?
As a noun, "bow" means: Arc.
What words are commonly confused with "bow"?
"bow" is commonly confused with "by", "bu", "Br". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "bow"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "bow" is \ˈboʊ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "bow" come from?
"bow" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "bow", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

cep#35,421aim#35,360UDC#35,319taj#35,301

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list