• Ewe

    Pronunciation

    • IPA: /juː/
    • Rhymes: -uː
    • Homophones: u, yew, you in all dialects
    • Homophones: hew, hue in h-dropping dialects

    Origin

    From Middle English, from Old English ēowu, from Proto-Germanic *awjōs, oblique form of *awiz (compare Old English eow ‘sheep’, West Frisian ei, Dutch ooi, German Aue), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ówis ‘sheep’ (compare Old Irish oí, Latin ovis, Tocharian B

    u

    )w|lang=txb}, Lithuanian avìs ‘ewe’).

    Full definition of ewe

    Noun

    ewe

    (plural ewes or ewe)
    1. A female sheep, as opposed to a ram.

    Usage notes

    Because of its pronunciation and despite its spelling, this word most commonly takes the indefinite article a rather than an.

    Anagrams

    Trivia

    Because of its pronunciation, ewe and its homophone you form one of only two homophone pairs in modern English that share no letters. The other pair is 'I' and "eye", with "aye" also for some dialects.
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