Word.ws English Dictionary

bayou

/ˈbaɪ.(j)uː/

bayou noun: a slow-moving, often stagnant creek or river.

bayou: a slow-moving, often stagnant creek or river
Image: jc.winkler, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

bayou (plural bayous)

  1. A slow-moving, often stagnant creek or river.
    • You natural persons old and young! / You on the Mississippi and on all the branches and bayous of the Mississippi! / You friendly boatmen and mechanics! you roughs!1892, Walt Whitman, “A Leaf for Hand in Hand”, in Leaves of Grass […], Philadelphia, Pa.: David McKay, publisher, […], →OCLC, page 109
  2. A swamp; a marshy (stagnant) body of water.
    • At that time I had no staff officer who could be trusted with that duty. In the woods, at a short distance below the clearing, I found a depression, dry at the time, but which at high water became a slough or bayou.1886, Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, volume 2

Proper noun capitalized: Bayou

Bayou (plural Bayous)

  1. A surname.

bayou meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and Telugu

bayou in Hindi

बायौ

bayou in Tamil

சற்றுக் சிறுகுடா

bayou in Bengali

বায়ৌ

bayou in Telugu

బాయూ, బయౌ
More languagesFewer languages
bayou in Malayalam
ബയൂ, ബായൂ
bayou in Kannada
ಬಾಯೂ, ಬಯೌ
bayou in Odia
ବାଯ଼ୌ
bayou in Nepali
बायू, बायौ

Forms of bayou

Noun
pluralbayous
alternative form (obsolete)buyou
alternative form (obsolete)byo
Proper noun
pluralBayous

Plural of bayou: bayous

Origin of bayou

From Louisiana French bayou, from Choctaw bayuk (“a creek”). Doublet of bogue.

Words formed from bayou

Phrases with bayou

Questions about bayou

What does bayou mean?
Bayou means a slow-moving, often stagnant creek or river.
What is bayou in Hindi?
Bayou in Hindi is बायौ. See Bayou meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is bayou?
Bayou can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce bayou?
Bayou is pronounced /ˈbaɪ.(j)uː/.
What is the plural of bayou?
The plural of bayou is bayous.

Words near bayou in the dictionary

  1. bayongs
  2. Bayonne
  3. Bayonne ham
  4. Bayonne hams
  5. Bayons
  6. bayou
  7. bayou beans
  8. Bayou of Pigs
  9. bayou physa
  10. bayou physae
  11. bayou physas

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bayou (page history and authors); Bayou (page history and authors); bayou (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bayou (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bayou (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bayou (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bayou (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bayou (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bayou (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bayou (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-NaomiAmethyst-bayou.wav.

Cite this entry: “bayou.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bayou. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.