Word.ws English Dictionary

owes

owes is the third-person singular simple present indicative of owe.

owes is the alternative form of oes.

Meaning of owe

Verb

owe (third-person singular simple present owes, present participle owing, simple past owed or (archaic) ought, past participle owed or (archaic) ought or (archaic) own)

  1. (ditransitive) To be under an obligation to give something back to someone or to perform some action for someone.
    • We owe it to our children to make our nation a better place to live in the future.
  2. (intransitive) To have debt; to be in debt.
  3. (transitive) To have as a cause; used with to.
    • The record owes its success to the outstanding guitar solos.

Meaning of oes

Noun

oes pl (plural only)

  1. (obsolete, plural, plural-only) Small circle-shaped sequins of precious metal sewn to clothing for decorative effect, popular in the 17th century.
    • The Colours, that shew best by Candlelight, are; White, Carnation, and a Kinde of Sea-Water-Greene; And Oes, or Spangs, as they are of no great Cost, so they are of most Glory.1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Masques and Triumphs”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC

Phrases with owes

Words that rhyme with owes

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about owes

What is owes the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Owes is the third-person singular simple present indicative of owe.

Words near owes in the dictionary

  1. Owenton
  2. Owenyo
  3. ower
  4. Owerri
  5. owers
  6. owes
  7. owes it to oneself
  8. owes out
  9. owest
  10. oweth
  11. OWF

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: owes (page history and authors); owe (page history and authors); oes (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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Cite this entry: “owes.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/owes. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.