cow

CEFRA1

/kaʊ/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A large female farm animal kept for milk or meat.

  2. 02

    verb

    To frighten someone so they cannot act confidently.

Examples

  • The cow grazed peacefully in the green pasture all afternoon.

  • You cannot sell the cow and drink the milk.

At a glance

Sits at A1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • [kʰæʊː]
  • /kuː/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. Any member of the species Bos taurus that is not of a bucking breed or fighting breed, regardless of sex or age, including steers and calves.

  2. Beef: the meat of cattle as food.

  3. An adult female of the species Bos taurus, especially one that has calved.

More examples

In context

  • A cow is a useful animal.

  • The only meat I eat is cow.

  • We saw lots of cows at the farm show, including some surprisingly gigantic bulls.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The farmer milked the blank early in the morning every day.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

Cognate with Sanskrit गो (go), Ancient Greek βοῦς (boûs), Persian گاو (gâv)), Latvian govs (“cow”), Proto-Slavic *govędo (Serbo-Croatian govedo, Russian говядина (govjadina, “beef”), Scots coo (“cow”), North Frisian ko, kø (“cow”), West Frisian ko (“cow”), Dutch koe (“cow”), Low German Koh, Koo, Kau (“cow”), German Kuh (“cow”), Danish and Swedish ko (“cow”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk ku (“cow”), Faroese kúgv (“cow”), Icelandic kýr (“cow”), Latin bōs (“ox, bull, cow”) (whence English beef), Armenian կով (kov, “cow”). Doublet of beef. The plural kine is from Middle English kyne, kyn, kuin, kiin, kien (“cows”), either a double plural of Middle English ky, kye (“cows”), equivalent...