Shadow

How to spell shadow

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce shadow

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does shadow mean?

1. nounA dark area or shape produced when an object blocks a source of light.
2. verbTo follow someone closely and often secretly in order to observe them.

Shadow in a sentence

• noun

  The tall building cast a long shadow across the car park.

• verb

  The detective decided to shadow the suspect for the rest of the week.

• noun

  She stepped into the shadow of the oak tree to escape the afternoon heat.

• verb

  New staff often shadow an experienced colleague during their first days.

Where does shadow come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Shadow comes from the Old English noun sceaduwe, an inflected form of sceadu, which meant 'shade' or 'darkness cast by something blocking light'. It belongs to a wider Germanic family; close relatives survive in Dutch schaduw and in the German word Schatten, all tracing back to a Proto-Germanic root meaning shade or shadow. Interestingly, English ended up keeping two words from the same source: 'shade' grew out of the basic nominative sceadu, while 'shadow' grew out of the longer oblique form sceaduwe, which is why the second word carries that extra -ow ending. The meaning has stayed remarkably steady for over a thousand years, though it has gathered figurative uses, such as a sense of gloom or a person who follows another closely. The spelling trap is simply that unstressed final -ow, which sounds like a plain 'oh' yet must be written out in full.

How the word is built

• shad- (Old English sceadu: shade, shadow)
• -ow (from the oblique form sceaduwe)