pillow
/ˈpɪ.ləʊ//ˈpɪ.loʊ/ [ˈpʰɪ.loʊ]
pillow noun: a soft cushion used to support the head in bed.
Noun
pillow (countable and uncountable, plural pillows)
- A soft cushion used to support the head in bed.
- The appearance of the entire tomb is as if the warrior had seen the vision of Christ in his dying moments, and had fallen back peacefully upon his pillow, with his eyes still turned to it, and his hands clasped in prayer.1853, John Ruskin, “Roman Renaissance”, in The Stones of Venice, volume III (The Fall), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, § LVII, page 74
- She, walking like a killer
She, another night another pillow
Nowhere places, nowhere faces, no one wants to see […]1996, Brett Anderson, “She”, in Coming Up, performed by Suede
- Any similar head support used for sleep, such as a neck pillow or a hard porcelain pillow.
- She slept with her head on the pillow.
- A pillow lava.
- A piece of metal or wood, forming a support to equalize pressure; a brass; a pillow block.
- A block under the inner end of a bowsprit.
- The socket of a pivot.
- A kind of plain, coarse fustian.
- A woman's breast, especially when large and seemingly soft.
Verb
pillow (third-person singular simple present pillows, present participle pillowing, simple past and past participle pillowed)
- To rest as on a pillow.
- ...but Lucy was too thoroughly exhausted to awaken. There she lay, her head pillowed upon her arm, like a child that had cried itself to rest; while Francesca bent over her,...1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter X, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 73
- As we stop in front of a tenement to watch one of these groups, a dirty baby in a single brief garment—yet a sweet, human little baby despite its dirt and tatters—tumbles off the lowest step, rolls over once, clutches my leg with unconscious grip, and goes to sleep on the flagstones, its curly head...1890, Jacob A[ugust] Riis, “The Sweaters of Jewtown”, in How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 135
Proper noun capitalized: Pillow
Pillow (plural Pillows)
- A surname.
pillow meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
pillow in Hindi
- soft cushion used to support the head in bed
- सिरहाना sirhānā, शिरोपधान śiropdhān
pillow in Tamil
- soft cushion used to support the head in bed
- தலைகாணி talaikāṇi, தலையணை talaiyaṇai
pillow in Marathi
- soft cushion used to support the head in bed
- उशी uśī
pillow in Urdu
- soft cushion used to support the head in bed
- تَکْیَہ takya, سِرْہانَہ sirhāna, بالش bāliś, مسند masnad
More languagesFewer languages
- pillow in Bengali
- বালিশ baliś
- pillow in Telugu
- దిండు diṇḍu
- pillow in Malayalam
- തലയണ talayaṇa
- pillow in Kannada
- ದಿಂಬು dimbu
- pillow in Punjabi
- ਸਿਰਹਾਣਾ sirhāṇā, سِرْہاݨا sirhāṇā
- pillow in Gujarati
- ઓશીકું ośīkũ
- pillow in Odia
- ତକିଆ takiā
- pillow in Sanskrit
- शिरोपधान śiropadhāna
- pillow in Sinhala
- කොට්ටයක් koṭṭayak
- pillow in Assamese
- গাঁৰু gãru, বালিছ balis
- pillow in Nepali
- सिरानी sirānī
- pillow in Pashto
- بالښت bālᶕx̌t
- pillow in Tagalog
- unan, almohada
- pillow in Arabic
- وِسَادَة wisāda, مِخَدَّة miḵadda
- pillow in Malay
- bantal
- pillow in Indonesian
- bantal
- pillow in Persian
- بالش bâleš
- pillow in Thai
- หมอน mɔ̌ɔn
- pillow in Vietnamese
- gối
- pillow in Myanmar
- ခေါင်းအုံး hkaung:um:, အုံး um:
Examples of pillow in a sentence
- She buried her face in the pillow, and I buried mine in my hands.
- The plentiful blankets and the voluptuous pillows of the bed called out to my tired body.
- I love how squishy the pillow is—it’s so comfortable to sleep on.
Forms of pillow
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | pillows |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | pillows |
| present participle | pillowing |
| past participle | pillowed |
| past | pillowed |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Pillows |
| alternative form | Pellow |
Origin of pillow
From Middle English pilwe, from Old English pyle, pylu (“pillow”), from Proto-West Germanic *pulwī (“pillow”), from Latin pulvīnus (“cushion”), derived from pulvis (“dust”), for the filler of a pillow. Doublet of pulvinus. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Peel (“pillow”), Alemannic German Pfulme (“pillow”), Dutch peluw (“a long, narrow pillow”), German Pfühl (“a big and soft pillow”), German Low German Pöhl (“pad, pillow, cushion”).
Words formed from pillow
- a good conscience is a soft pillow
- ball-and-pillow structure
- body pillow
- boomerang pillow
- dirty pillow
- floor pillow
- high pillow
- hotdog pillow
- husband pillow
- jumping pillow
- lace pillow
- lap pillow
- lip pillow
- love pillow
- maternity pillow
- neck pillow
- opium pillow
- pillow bag
- pillow basalt
- pillowbeer
- pillow-biter
- pillow block
- pillowbook
- pillow box
- pillow-case
- pillowcase
- pillow case
- pillow chop
- pillow dictionary
- pillow fight
- pillow fort
- pillowful
- pillowing
- pillow lace
- pillow lava
- pillowless
- pillowlike
- pillow menu
- pillow mound
- pillow pouch
- pillow princess
- pillow queen
- pillow shading
- pillowside
- pillowslip
- pillow talk
- pillowtop
- pillow-top
- pillow word
- pillowy
- pregnancy pillow
- pretzel pillow
- quillow
- sauna pillow
- sex pillow
- snow pillow
- spicy pillow
- throw pillow
- toss pillow
- waifu pillow
Phrases with pillow
- pillow bags
- pillow book
- pillow biter
- pillow books
- pillow boxes
- pillow cases
- pillow forts
- pillow laces
- pillow lavas
- pillow menus
- pillow words
- pillow blocks
7 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with pillow
Questions about pillow
- What does pillow mean?
- Pillow means a soft cushion used to support the head in bed.
- What is pillow in Hindi?
- Pillow in Hindi is सिरहाना (sirhānā), शिरोपधान (śiropdhān). See Pillow meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is pillow?
- Pillow can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce pillow?
- Pillow is pronounced /ˈpɪ.ləʊ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of pillow?
- The plural of pillow is pillows.
Words near pillow in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pillow (page history and authors); Pillow (page history and authors); ତକିଆ (Odia) (page history and authors); शिरोपधान (Sanskrit) (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: En-uk-pillow.ogg, en-us-pillow.ogg.
Cite this entry: “pillow.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pillow. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.