Row

How to spell row

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce row

What does row mean?

1. nounA number of people or things positioned in a straight line.
2. verbTo move a boat through water using oars.
3. nounA noisy quarrel or heated dispute.

Row in a sentence

• noun

  The gardener planted a neat row of tomatoes along the fence.

• verb

  They decided to row across the lake before the wind picked up.

• noun

  The neighbours had a furious row about the boundary fence.

• noun

  Our seats were in the back row of the theatre.

• verb

  It takes real strength to row against a strong current.

• noun

  A bitter row broke out at the meeting over the budget cuts.

Where does row come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word actually covers two unrelated histories that happen to share a spelling. The 'line' and 'propel a boat' senses both descend from Old English: the noun raw meant a line or series of things, while the verb rowan meant to move a boat with oars, and both trace back to ancient Germanic roots tied to the idea of arranging or rowing. The angry 'quarrel' sense is a much later and murkier arrival, recorded in English only from the late 1700s as slang, with no agreed parentage; lexicographers honestly call its origin unknown. Because the two boat-and-line senses rhyme with 'go' while the quarrel sense rhymes with 'now', the single spelling hides a heteronym. The 'go'-rhyming senses also share a sound with 'roe' (fish eggs), which is the small spelling trap worth remembering.

How the word is built

• row (a single root word; no prefix or suffix)

Words that sound like row

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

• roe: The mass of eggs contained in the body of a female fish, often eaten as food.