bow

/bəʊ/

//bəʊ// noun

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

The verdict

“bow” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #22,885) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#22,885
frequency rank, Portuguese
840
“B” headwords
20
confusable pairs

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

Corpus desk

Index PT-bow · bow · Portuguese

bow · rank #22,885 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #22,885
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 840
  • PHOTO-FINISH bónus

Nearest frequency peer: bónus (+4 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.

Vizinhos de frequência do confusável “bow”

Pares de peso semelhante no corpus, aparte dos confusáveis abaixo

corpus weight

What this shows As barras situam “bow” face aos lemas portugueses mais próximos por rank, não um reprint da secretária de confusáveis.

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 BR
0% similar
bow vs boy
67% similar

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

Key facts for bow
PropertyValue
Headwordbow
LanguagePortuguese
Part of speechNoun
IPA/bəʊ/
Letters3
Frequency rank#22,885
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rank de corpus junto a confusáveis de “bow”

Da esquerda para a direita: o pouco que carrega a fala diária, depois a cauda longa quase invisível.bowcai aqui:

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

A escala é logarítmica (cada marca ≈ 10× mais rara). Na mesma faixa de raridade aparecem “bónus” (#22,889), “canalização” (#22,896), “caricatura” (#22,898). Entre 840 lemas com “B”, “bow” fica em #22,885. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for bow is neighbouring look-alikes ("by", "BR", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /bəʊ/. Frequency #22,885 among 840 “B” headwords. 5 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for bow, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "by", "BR", "boy", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct Portuguese form is bow, spelled B-O-W.

Definition

  1. 1
    arco
  2. 2
    arco
  3. 3
    curva
  4. 4
    laço
  5. 5
    o ato de curvar-se perante pessoas em reverência

Synonyms

fiddlestickarcbendcurve

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 Portuguese 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 /bəʊ/.
What does "bow" mean?
As a noun, "bow" means: arco
What words are commonly confused with "bow"?
"bow" is commonly confused with "by", "BR", "boy". 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 /bəʊ/. 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 Portuguese 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 Portuguese words by spelling shape

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

Same letter count

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

aro#22,868vin#22,833noz#22,733gun#22,665

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list