Stow

How to spell stow

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce stow

What does stow mean?

1. verbTo pack or store something away tidily, especially in a confined space.

Stow in a sentence

• Passengers must stow their bags in the overhead lockers before takeoff.

• The crew helped stow the cargo securely below deck.

Where does stow come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word goes back to the Old English noun stōw, which simply meant 'a place' or 'a spot', a sense that still survives in many English place names ending in -stow, such as Felixstowe and Bristol's older form. From that noun a verb developed, meaning to put something in its proper place, and by the late Middle Ages 'to stow' had narrowed to the idea of packing goods away neatly, especially aboard a ship where space was tight and cargo had to be carefully arranged. The nautical use is what kept the word alive and gave us the familiar phrase 'stow away', which in turn produced the noun 'stowaway' for a hidden passenger. Although it looks like the start of 'stowage' and shares a feel with words like 'store', its short single-syllable spelling is the older and simpler form. The trap for writers is purely the vowel sound: the long 'oh' is spelled -ow rather than -oe or -oa.

How the word is built

• stow (from Old English stōw: a place, a spot)