sow
1 Americanverb (used with object)
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to scatter (seed) over land, earth, etc., for growth; plant.
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to plant seed for.
to sow a crop.
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to scatter seed over (land, earth, etc.) for the purpose of growth.
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to implant, introduce, or promulgate; seek to propagate or extend; disseminate.
to sow distrust or dissension.
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to strew or sprinkle with anything.
verb (used without object)
noun
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an adult female swine.
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the adult female of various other animals, as the bear.
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Metallurgy.
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a large oblong mass of iron that has solidified in the common channel through which the molten metal flows to the smaller channels in which the pigs solidify.
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the common channel itself.
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a basin holding any of certain molten nonferrous metals to be cast.
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noun
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a female adult pig
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the female of certain other animals, such as the mink
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metallurgy
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the channels for leading molten metal to the moulds in casting pig iron
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iron that has solidified in these channels
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verb
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to scatter or place (seed, a crop, etc) in or on (a piece of ground, field, etc) so that it may grow
to sow wheat
to sow a strip of land
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(tr) to implant or introduce
to sow a doubt in someone's mind
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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sowsimple
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sowssimple
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have sowedperfect
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have sownperfect
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has sowedperfect
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has sownperfect
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am sowingprogressive
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are sowingprogressive
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is sowingprogressive
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have been sowingperfect progressive
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has been sowingperfect progressive
Past
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sowedsimple
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had sowedperfect
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had sownperfect
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was sowingprogressive
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were sowingprogressive
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had been sowingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sow1
First recorded before 900; Middle English sowen, Old English sāwan; cognate with Dutch zaaien, German säen, Old Norse sā, Gothic saian; akin to seed, Latin sēmen “seed”
Origin of sow2
First recorded before 900; Middle English soue, sou(we), Old English sugu, sū; cognate with German Sau, Old Norse sȳr, Latin sūs, Greek hûs, Tocharian B suwo; see swine
Explanation
When you plant seeds in the ground, you sow them. You can also sow things like doubts or ideas, simply by spreading them around. If your ideas (or your seeds) develop and grow, you've successfully sown them. The verb sow is pronounced completely differently from the noun sow, which means "a female pig." When you sow flower seeds, it rhymes with "go." When you admire an enormous, muddy sow in a pig pen, it rhymes with "cow." When two words are spelled the same but sound different, they're called heteronyms.
Vocabulary lists containing sow
"The Hill We Climb," by Amanda Gorman
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Dirty Words: The Language of Gardening
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Starting Your New Life: Inspiring Words from Commencement Speeches
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
There are ways to improve voting integrity, but Mr. Tillis is right that it’s reckless to sow generalized suspicion that American elections aren’t honest.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
Well, God knows you reap what you sow.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
“AI hype and exuberant financial markets” could sow the seeds of instability.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 8, 2026
It means Scottish pig farmers are losing up to £1,000 per sow place, according to NFU Scotland.
From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2026
The pig was a sow weighing perhaps a hundred pounds.
From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan
Wall Street loves an ugly portmanteau, or jamming together of two words in a way that sows confusion, followed closely by dislike.
From Barron's ● Jun. 12, 2026
“He who sows the wind shall reap the whirlwind,” he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 1, 2026
He sows chaos even when he clearly doesn’t mean the things he says.
From Slate ● Mar. 6, 2026
"It's a distraction. It sows discord, and it's something that I don't want to give power to."
From Salon ● Sep. 15, 2024
For example, when a farmer sows seeds densely in a garden, there is intense competition among the seeds.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
The move sounds the death knell for the upstart that sowed chaos in professional golf by plowing billions into the sport and poaching A-list players.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026
But it sowed a seed and she joined a local running club in Manchester.
From BBC ● Apr. 27, 2026
It sowed the seed for the idea of a wobble board which could heighten core strength through muscle movement, training the body to learn healthy patterns which promote overall stability.
From BBC ● Apr. 14, 2026
“Mencho’s name and Mencho’s aura carried a lot of legend, it sowed fear,” Craine said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 23, 2026
I wondered if it was Claudius who sowed a bad seed between them.
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
Seeds of the idea for blocs within the bloc were sown decades ago.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
Pigeons "have an extremely sophisticated olfactory system, so that they can smell grass seed when it's being sown," said Davis.
From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026
The seed of Stellantis’s bet on Wayve was sown on a test ride in London, when the technology wowed the carmaker’s chief technology officer, Ned Curic, with its humanlike way of edging into flowing traffic.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026
But in about 1989, the seeds of a new Muffler Man era were sown.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 12, 2026
The seeds for this system were sown in 1823 in the sugar colony of British Guiana—now Guyana—where John Gladstone, father of the future British prime minister William Gladstone, owned over a thousand slaves.
From "Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science" by Marc Aronson
Meanwhile, frightful aftershocks continued to rock the area, sowing terror in a population already reaching the limits of endurance.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 30, 2026
The people of New York vanquished him with none of the spite he has spent decades sowing, but with grace, love, and pride in their city.
From Salon ● Jun. 17, 2026
But the chatbot’s growth slowed toward the end of last year, sowing fresh doubt among company leaders about the approach.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 28, 2026
"It's a busy time of year and we're sowing crops, putting fertiliser out on crops and it's obviously increased the cost of producing what we do," he said.
From BBC ● Apr. 13, 2026
Sometimes in the middle of sowing or reaping or tilling, or the innumerable tasks the land demanded, he would stop and straighten up, breathing hard and trembling.
From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
