Rower

How to spell rower

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce rower

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does rower mean?

1. nounA person who propels a boat by pulling on oars, especially as a sport.

Rower in a sentence

• Each rower pulled in perfect time with the others.

• The strongest rower sat at the back of the eight.

Where does rower come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word comes straight from the native English verb 'row', which descends from the Old English 'rowan', meaning to propel a boat by pulling on oars. That verb belongs to an old Germanic family of words connected to the idea of paddling or steering through water, with relatives across the North Sea languages such as Dutch 'roeien'. The same ancient root is thought to lie behind 'rudder', the steering blade at the stern of a boat, which makes good sense given their shared maritime life. The agent ending '-er', also native English, was simply added to mean 'a person who does this', producing the everyday word for an oarsman. Because both the verb and the suffix are so plain, the word looks deceptively simple, yet the cluster '-ower' can trip writers who hesitate over whether to double a letter.

How the word is built

• row (to propel a boat with oars)
• -er (agent suffix: one who does)