Word.ws English Dictionary

kew

UK/kjuː/

kew noun: the name of the Latin script letter Q/q. Also the clipping of thank you.

Noun (1)

kew (plural kews)

  1. The name of the Latin script letter Q/q.
    • The following telegram with explain this: "Your suggestion approved stop the troops proceeding to ex those to wye and zed and the detachment at kew must be completed to ten days rations."1908, Richard Cyril Byrne Haking, Staff Rides and Regimental Tours, London: Hugh Rees, page 305
    • the pardonable confusion for which some blame the cudgel and more blame the soot but unthanks to which the pees with their caps awry are quite as often as not taken for kews with their tails in their or are quite as often as not taken for pews with their tails in their mouths1939, James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, London: Faber and Faber

Noun (2)

kew (uncountable)

  1. In American Chinese cuisine, meat in small curling pieces.
    • fish kew
    • shrimp kew

Proper noun capitalized: Kew

Kew

  1. A suburban area and former village in the borough of Richmond upon Thames, southwest Greater London, England (OS grid ref TQ1977).
    • Kew is best known as the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens, now a World Heritage Site, and the National Archives.
  2. (metonymically) Kew Gardens.
  3. A locality in the Port Macquarie-Hastings council area, north eastern New South Wales, Australia.
  4. An eastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Noun (3) capitalized: KEW

KEW (plural KEWs)

  1. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of kinetic energy weapon.

Also used as

kew is also the clipping of thank you.

kew meaning in Punjabi and Odia

kew in Punjabi

ਕੀਊ

kew in Odia

କେୱ୍

Forms of kew

pluralkews
pluralKEWs

Origin of kew

Apheretic form of thank you.

From Taishanese 球 (kiu³).

From Middle English Cayho, a compound consisting of Old French kai (related to modern quay) + Middle English ho, howe, hoh, hogh (“promontory, cliff, spur of land”), from Old English hōh (“promontory”), see hoe.

Words formed from kew

Phrases with kew

Questions about kew

What does kew mean?
Kew means the name of the Latin script letter Q/q.
What is kew in Punjabi?
Kew in Punjabi is ਕੀਊ. See Kew meaning in Punjabi.
What part of speech is kew?
Kew can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce kew?
Kew is pronounced /kjuː/ (UK).
What is the plural of kew?
The plural of kew is kews.

Words near kew in the dictionary

  1. kevutzot
  2. kevutzoth
  3. Kevvy
  4. Kevy
  5. Kevyn
  6. kew
  7. Kew East
  8. Kew Gardens
  9. Kewa
  10. Kewanee
  11. Kewanmainim

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kew (page history and authors); Kew (page history and authors); KEW (page history and authors); kew (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); kew (Odia, 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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Cite this entry: “kew.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kew. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.