Narrows

How to spell narrows

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce narrows

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does narrows mean?

1. verbBecomes or makes less wide, or reduces a gap or range.
2. nounA narrow stretch of water connecting two larger bodies of water.

Narrows in a sentence

• verb

  The lane narrows sharply just past the old stone bridge.

• noun

  The ferry slows to a crawl as it eases through the narrows.

• verb

  The gap between the two teams narrows with every match.

• noun

  Fishing boats gather near the narrows at first light.

Where does narrows come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows from the Old English adjective 'nearu', which meant tight, constricted, or confined, and which also gave English the related sense of being hemmed in or anxious. The Germanic ancestors behind it carried the same idea of a small or pinched space, and the adjective steadily widened its use to describe roads, channels, gaps, and margins of all kinds. From the adjective came a verb, 'to narrow', meaning to make or become less wide, and a noun use describing a narrow stretch of water between two larger bodies. The '-s' you see here is simply the ordinary English ending, marking either the plural of that water-channel noun or the present-tense 'he/she/it' form of the verb. Because the base word is so plainly built from everyday English, its spelling holds few surprises beyond remembering the double 'r'.

How the word is built

• narrow (from Old English nearu: tight, constricted)
• -s (plural noun / third-person singular verb ending)