billow

C2+ Topic:General Vocabulary

US /ˈbɪloʊ/ UK /ˈbɪləʊ/ See IPA manual

Homophones

below /bɪˈloʊ/

Meanings

1

noun
a large rolling wave; to swell or surge outward

Smoke began to billow from the upper windows.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a large rolling wave; to... wave surge swell roll heave undulate

Opposites

subside ebb

Word family

Forms billowy

Derived forms billowybillowing

Etymology

From Old Norse bylgja ('a wave, billow'), from Proto-Germanic *bulgijǭ, from a root meaning 'to swell'. Entered English in the 16th century.

bylgja Old Norse *bulgijǭ Proto-Germanic

View etymology graph ->

Topics

General Vocabulary

External links

# billow

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈbɪloʊ/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈbɪləʊ/

## Meanings
1. a large rolling wave; to swell or surge outward

## Examples
- Smoke began to billow from the upper windows.

## Synonyms
- wave
- surge
- swell
- roll
- heave
- undulate

## Antonyms
- subside
- ebb

## Derived Forms
- billowy
- billowing

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: bylgja
- Root: *bulgijǭ

## Etymology
From Old Norse bylgja ('a wave, billow'), from Proto-Germanic *bulgijǭ, from a root meaning 'to swell'. Entered English in the 16th century.

## AI Etymology
Billow comes from Old Norse bylgja ('a wave, billow'), from Proto-Germanic *bulgijǭ, from a root meaning 'to swell'. Entered English in the 16th century. The historical trail runs through bylgja in Old Norse and *bulgijǭ in Proto-Germanic. Used as a noun and verb, billow now means "a large rolling wave; to swell or surge outward", so the present definition can be read against the older forms and meanings. The same lexical family is also visible in derived forms such as billowy and billowing. The result is a borrowed or transmitted form whose modern spelling carries a compact record of its route into English.

## Topics
- General Vocabulary

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