Word.ws English Dictionary

bow shock

/ˈbaʊʃɑk/

bow shock noun: a shock wave formed by the bow of an object travelling at supersonic speed.

Noun

bow shock (plural bow shocks)

  1. A shock wave formed by the bow of an object travelling at supersonic speed.
    Synonyms:
    detached shock
  2. The region of the magnetosphere in which the solar wind slows from supersonic to subsonic.
  3. A bow wave.

Synonyms of bow shock

  • detached shock

Forms of bow shock

pluralbow shocks

Questions about bow shock

What does bow shock mean?
Bow shock means a shock wave formed by the bow of an object travelling at supersonic speed.
What part of speech is bow shock?
Bow shock is a noun.
How do you pronounce bow shock?
Bow shock is pronounced /ˈbaʊʃɑk/.
What is the plural of bow shock?
The plural of bow shock is bow shocks.

Words near bow shock in the dictionary

  1. Bow River
  2. bow rudder
  3. bow rudders
  4. bow saw
  5. bow saws
  6. bow shock
  7. bow shocks
  8. bow spring
  9. bow springs
  10. Bow St. Runner
  11. Bow St. Runners

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bow shock (page history and authors). 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-bow shock.wav.

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