sow
UK/saʊ//soʊ/
sow noun: a female pig. Also the clipping of sowbug.
Noun (1)
sow (plural sows or (archaic) swine)
- A female pig.
- A female bear; she-bear.
- Lucky he wasn't a sow. They've usually just dropped a cub this time of year. A sow would have been cranky as hell.1995, Dana Stabenow, Play with Fire, →ISBN, page 11
- A female guinea pig.
- A contemptible, often fat woman.
- A channel that conducts molten metal to molds.
- A mass of metal solidified in a mold.
- In England, it was generally termed a 'sow', if the weight was above 10 cwts., if below, it was termed a 'pig' from which the present term 'pig iron' is derived.1957, H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, page 160
- Synonyms:
- ingot
- A kind of covered shed, formerly used by besiegers in filling up and passing the ditch of a besieged place, sapping and mining the wall, etc.
Verb
sow (third-person singular simple present sows, present participle sowing, simple past sowed, past participle sown)
- To scatter, disperse, or plant (seeds).
- When I had sown the field, the day's work was over.
- To spread abroad; to propagate.
- as you sow, so shall you reap
- Euen as I haue seene, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickednsse, reape the same.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 4:8
- To scatter over; to besprinkle.
- The intellectual faculty is a goodly field, […] and it is the worst husbandry in the world to sow it with trifles.a. 1677 (date written), Matthew Hale, The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to the Light of Nature, London: […] William Godbid, for William Shrowsbery, […]...
- [He] sowd with Starrs the heav'n.1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
Noun (2) capitalized: SOW
SOW (plural SOWs)
Proper noun capitalized: Sow
Sow (countable and uncountable, plural Sows)
- A surname.
- A river in Staffordshire, England, which joins the River Trent.
Also used as
sow is also the clipping of sowbug.
sow is also the obsolete spelling of sew.
sow meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Telugu
sow in Hindi
- disperse seeds
- बोना bonā
sow in Marathi
- disperse seeds
- पेरणे perṇe
sow in Urdu
- disperse seeds
- بونا bonā
sow in Telugu
- disperse seeds
- విత్తు vittu
More languagesFewer languages
- sow in Punjabi
- ਸੂਰਨੀ sūrnī, ਬੀਜਣਾ bījṇā
- sow in Gujarati
- વાવવું vāvvũ
- sow in Sinhala
- ඊරි īri
- sow in Tagalog
- inahing baboy
- sow in Arabic
- خِنْزِيرَة ḵinzīra, زَرَعَ zaraʕa, بَذَرَ baḏara
- sow in Malay
- khinzir betina, semai
- sow in Indonesian
- babi betina, tabur
- sow in Persian
- ماده خوک mâde-xuk, کشتن keštan, پراگندن parāgandan
- sow in Thai
- หว่าน wàan
- sow in Vietnamese
- gieo
- sow in Myanmar
- ဝက်မ wakma.
Examples of sow in a sentence
- And sow dissension in the hearts of brothers.1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene iv, page...
- Not surprisingly, it has sown doubt among other operators of diesel-hydraulics; […].1963 June, G. Freeman Allen, “The success of diesel-hydraulics on the German Federal Railway”, in Modern Railways, page 386:
Synonyms of sow
Forms of sow
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | sows |
| plural | SOWs |
| plural (archaic) | swine |
| alternative form (dialectal) | zew |
| alternative form (dialectal) | soo |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | sows |
| present participle | sowing |
| past | sowed |
| past participle | sown |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Sows |
Origin of sow
From Middle English sowe, from Old English sugu, from Proto-West Germanic *sugu, from Proto-Germanic *sugō, probably from Proto-Indo-European *su(H)kéh₂, from *suH- (“pig”). See also West Frisian sûch, Dutch zeug, Low German Söög, German Sau, Swedish sugga, Norwegian sugge; also Welsh hwch (“pig”), Sanskrit सूकर (sūkará, “swine, boar”); also Danish so, German Sau, Latin sūs, Tocharian B suwo, Ancient Greek ὗς (hûs), Albanian thi, Avestan 𐬵𐬏 (hū, “boar”). See also swine. Doublet of soor.
From Middle English sowen, from Old English sāwan, from Proto-West Germanic *sāan, from Proto-Germanic *sēaną, from Proto-Indo-European *seh₁-. Compare Dutch zaaien, German säen, Danish så, Norwegian Bokmål så.
Words formed from sow
- brood sow
- bucksow
- drunk as a sow
- drunk as David's sow
- make a silk purse of a sow's ear
- niggersow
- sole
- sowback
- sowbane
- sowbelly
- sowbread
- sowfoot
- sowgelder
- sowlike
- sow stall
- sow thistle
- as you sow, so shall you reap
- besow
- intersow
- oversow
- reap what one sows
- resow
- self-sown
- sowable
- sow dragon's teeth
- sower
- sown
- sow one's oats
- sow one's wild oats
- sow the seeds of
- sow the wind, reap the whirlwind
- sow wild oats
- undersow
- unsowed
Phrases with sow
Words that rhyme with sow
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about sow
- What does sow mean?
- Sow means a female pig.
- What is sow in Hindi?
- Sow in Hindi is बोना (bonā). See Sow meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use sow in a sentence?
- And sow dissension in the hearts of brothers.
- What part of speech is sow?
- Sow can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce sow?
- Sow is pronounced /saʊ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of sow?
- The plural of sow is sows.
Words near sow in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sow (page history and authors); SOW (page history and authors); Sow (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-us-sow-noun.ogg.
Cite this entry: “sow.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sow. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.