Word.ws English Dictionary

eau

/juː/US/oʊ/

eau is the alternative form of ea.

Meaning of ea

Noun

ea (plural eas)

  1. (UK, archaic, dialectal) A river or watercourse.
    • And they rowed away for Crowland, by many a mere and many an ea; through narrow reaches of clear brown glassy water; between the dark-green alders; between the pale-green reeds; where the coot clanked, and the bittern boomed, and the sedge-bird, not content with its own sweet song, mocked the song...1866, Charles Kingsley, Hereward the Wake: Last of the English

See all 2 meanings of ea

Noun

eau (uncountable)

  1. Water.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: EAU

EAU

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Eurasian Economic Union.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Eau

Eau

  1. Any of several rivers in Lincolnshire.

Forms of eau

pluraleaus

Origin of eau

From Middle English ea, eo, from Old English ēa (“running water, water, stream, river”), from Proto-Germanic *ahwō (“waters, river”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ekʷeh₂ (“water, flowing water”). Compare English aqua. Compare ea, yeo. Related to, and spelling influenced by, but not derived from French eau (“water”).

From French eau, from Middle French eau, eaue, from Old French ewe, euwe, egua (“water”), from Latin aqua (“water”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ekʷeh₂ (“water, flowing water”). Doublet of aqua.

From Old English ēa (“running water, water, stream, river”), from Proto-Germanic *ahwō (“waters, river”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ekʷeh₂ (“water, flowing water”). Cognate with North Frisian ia (“river”), Saterland Frisian Äi (“river”), West Frisian ie (“water, stream”), Dutch aa (“water, stream”), German Ache (“water, stream, river, flood”), Swedish å (“stream, creek”), Icelandic á (“stream, river”), Latin aqua (“water”). Doublet of aqua and yeo. Related to, but not derived from, French eau ("water").

Words formed from eau

  • Barlings Eau
  • Bourne Eau
  • Great Eau
  • Kyme Eau
  • Long Eau
  • Risegate Eau

Phrases with eau

Words that rhyme with eau

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about eau

What does eau mean?
Eau means water.
What is eau the alternative form of?
Eau is the alternative form of ea.
What part of speech is eau?
Eau can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce eau?
Eau is pronounced /juː/.
What is the plural of eau?
The plural of eau is eaus.

Words near eau in the dictionary

  1. eats up with a spoon
  2. eats, breathes, and sleeps
  3. eatware
  4. eatworthy
  5. eaty
  6. eau
  7. Eau Claire
  8. Eau Claire County
  9. eau Créole
  10. eau de cologne
  11. eau de cologne mint

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: eau (page history and authors); EAU (page history and authors); Eau (page history and authors); ea (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)-Vealhurl-eau.wav.

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