Tow

How to spell tow

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce tow

What does tow mean?

1. verbTo pull a vehicle, boat, or load along behind another using a rope or chain.
2. nounThe act of pulling a vehicle along, or the state of being pulled, often in the phrase 'in tow'.

Tow in a sentence

• verb

  The recovery truck arrived to tow the broken-down car to the garage.

• noun

  The motorway service crew gave the stalled van a tow to the nearest exit.

• verb

  A small tractor can tow the loaded trailer up the steep track.

• noun

  She walked into the meeting with three assistants in tow.

Where does tow come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word comes from the Old English verb togian, which meant 'to drag' or 'to pull along', and it is closely related to the Old Norse toga of the same sense. Both descend from a common Germanic root tied to the idea of pulling something behind you, and the same ancient root also feeds into the word 'tug'. From its earliest use it described hauling a boat or load along by a rope, which is why a path beside a canal where horses dragged barges is still called a towpath. The spelling has stayed remarkably stable for centuries, ending in -ow exactly like 'flow' and 'grow' rather than the -oe of its homophone 'toe', and keeping that distinction in mind is the surest way to spell it correctly. The modern senses, from towing a caravan to having children in tow, all trace directly back to that original notion of pulling something behind.

How the word is built

• tow (from Old English togian: to drag, pull)

Words that sound like tow

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

• toe: One of the five digits at the end of the human foot.