tow

\təʊ\

/\təʊ\/ noun

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

The verdict

“tow” is uncommon French (frequency #99,713 among 3,703 “T” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#99,713
frequency rank, French
3,703
“T” headwords

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

Corpus desk

Index FR-tow · tow · French

tow · rank #99,713 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #99,713
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,703
  • PHOTO-FINISH touiller

Nearest frequency peer: touiller (-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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « tow »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « tow » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for tow
PropertyValue
Headwordtow
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\təʊ\
Letters3
Frequency rank#99,713
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « tow » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).towtombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « touiller » (#99,712), « tragédienne » (#99,715), « topologiques » (#99,710). Parmi 3,703 lemmes en « T », « tow » est au #99,713. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

tow is uncommon French at frequency #99,713 among 3,703 “T” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \təʊ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Remorque.".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for tow, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is tow, spelled T-O-W.

Definition

  1. 1
    Remorque.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Could you give me a tow? My car is stuck.

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 "tow"?
"tow" is spelled T-O-W. The IPA pronunciation is \təʊ\.
What does "tow" mean?
As a noun, "tow" means: Remorque.
How do you pronounce "tow"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "tow" is \təʊ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "tow" come from?
"tow" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "tow", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

tst#99,722wag#99,755ael#99,835RNA#99,581

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list