Grown

How to spell grown

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce grown

What does grown mean?

1. verbThe past participle of grow: having increased in size, amount or maturity.
2. adjectiveFully developed in body or maturity; adult.

Grown in a sentence

• verb

  The company has grown rapidly since the merger.

• adjective

  A grown man should be able to handle his own finances.

• verb

  The tomatoes she planted have grown taller than the fence.

• adjective

  Their children are grown now and living in other cities.

Where does grown come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the past participle of the verb 'grow', which comes from the Old English 'growan', meaning to flourish, to increase, or to spring up. That word belongs to a wider Germanic family connected to ideas of green, growing things and was originally used mostly of plants and the soil before it widened to cover people, animals and anything that increases in size. The strong-verb pattern (grow, grew, grown) is inherited directly from the old Germanic system, which is why the past participle ends in -n rather than the regular -ed seen in newer English verbs. The same ancient root also gave English 'green' and 'grass', words that share the sense of living things that sprout and spread. The spelling trap is purely about sound: 'grown' is identical in speech to 'groan', the noise of complaint, so the two are easy to swap unless the meaning is kept firmly in mind.

How the word is built

• grow (Old English growan: to flourish, increase)
• -n (past participle ending)

Words that sound like grown

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• groan: To make a low, mournful sound expressing pain, weariness, or disapproval.