Word.ws English Dictionary

plowshare

plowshare is the alternative spelling of ploughshare.

Meaning of ploughshare

Noun

ploughshare (plural ploughshares)

  1. (UK) The cutting edge of a plough, typically a metal blade.
    • Holonyms: plough, plow < implement

Forms of plowshare

pluralplowshares

Origin of plowshare

From Middle English plowgh-schare, plowh schare, equivalent to plow + share. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Plouchskoar (“ploughshare”), West Frisian ploechskaar (“ploughshare”), Dutch ploegschaar (“ploughshare”), German Low German Ploogschoor (“ploughshare”), German Pflugschar (“ploughshare”), Danish plovskær (“ploughshare”), Norwegian plogskjær (“ploughshare”). Eclipsed non-native Middle English culter (“ploughshare”), from Old English culter (“ploughshare, coulter, dagger”), borrowed from Latin culter (“knife, razor”).

Questions about plowshare

What is plowshare the alternative spelling of?
Plowshare is the alternative spelling of ploughshare.

Words near plowshare in the dictionary

  1. plows the sands
  2. plows through
  3. plows under
  4. plows up
  5. plows with one's heifer
  6. plowshare
  7. plowshares
  8. plowsoil
  9. plowsoils
  10. plowsole
  11. plowsoles

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: plowshare (page history and authors); ploughshare (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)-Flame, not lame-plowshare.wav.

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