Word.ws English Dictionary

cornrow

cornrow noun: one of a set of rows of tightly braided hair close to the scalp, forming a hairstyle, of African origin.

cornrow: one of a set of rows of tightly braided hair close to the scalp, forming a hairstyle, of African...
Image: David Shankbone, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

cornrow (plural cornrows)

  1. (in plural) One of a set of rows of tightly braided hair close to the scalp, forming a hairstyle, of African origin.
    • The physician should evaluate for a history of tight ponytails, buns, chignons, braids, twists, weaves, cornrows, dreadlocks, sisterlocks, and hair wefts in addition to the usage of religious hair coverings.2021, Becky S. Li, Howard I. Maibach, Ethnic Skin and Hair and Other Cultural Considerations, page 154
    • Coolio, whose spindly and sprouting cornrows defined his look, went on to sell over 17 million records throughout his career.2022 September 29, Eduardo Medina, McKenna Oxenden, “Coolio, ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ Rapper, Dies at 59”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

Verb

cornrow (third-person singular simple present cornrows, present participle cornrowing, simple past and past participle cornrowed)

  1. (transitive) To braid the hair in this fashion.
    • He [...] passed his hand over her hair, which was now neatly cornrowed.2005, Helen Oyeyemi, The Icarus Girl, Bloomsbury, page 50
    • She had been hoping Sisi would help her cornrow her hair.2009, Chika Unigwe, On Black Sisters’ Street, Vintage (2010), page 4

Forms of cornrow

Noun
pluralcornrows
Verb
third-person singular presentcornrows
present participlecornrowing
past participlecornrowed
pastcornrowed

Origin of cornrow

From corn + row, reflecting the figurative evocation of rows of corn in a cornfield.

Words formed from cornrow

Questions about cornrow

What does cornrow mean?
Cornrow means one of a set of rows of tightly braided hair close to the scalp, forming a hairstyle, of African origin.
What part of speech is cornrow?
Cornrow can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of cornrow?
The plural of cornrow is cornrows.

Words near cornrow in the dictionary

  1. cornplated
  2. cornplates
  3. cornplating
  4. cornpone
  5. cornpones
  6. cornrow
  7. cornrowed
  8. cornrower
  9. cornrowers
  10. cornrowing
  11. cornrows

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cornrow (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.

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

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