allow
/əˈlaʊ/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: 5.01 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To acknowledge, accept the truth of; to concede; to accede to an opinion; to say something one agrees on in the context of a larger disagreement or reluctance.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "to allow a servant his liberty; to allow a free passage; to allow one day for rest"
- "[…] he needed a great deal of money, but his uncle only allowed him two thousand roubles a year, which was not enough, and for days together he would run about Moscow with his tongue out, as the saying is."
- "The event allows of only one interpretation."
- "I will allow my son to be absent."
- "With fresh material, taxonomic conclusions are leavened by recognition that the material examined reflects the site it occupied; a herbarium packet gives one only a small fraction of the data desirable for sound conclusions. Herbarium material does not, indeed, allow one to extrapolate safely: what you see is what you get[…]"
- "Although I don't consent to their holding such meetings, I will allow them for the time being."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd Proto-Italic *ad Proto-Italic *ad- Latin ad- Latin laus Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ājō Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin laudō Latin allaudō Old French aloer ▲ Latin ad- Proto-Indo-European *stel-der. Proto-Italic *stlokos? Old Latin stlocus Latin locus ▲ Latin -ō Latin locō Latin allocō Old French aloer Anglo-Norman alouerbor. Middle English allowen English allow From Middle English allowen, alowen, a borrowing from Anglo-Norman allouer, alouer, from Medieval Latin allaudāre, merged with alouer, from Medieval Latin allocō (“to assign”). Doublet of allaud (via allaudāre) or allocate (via allocāre). The similarity with Middle English alyfen (from Old English ālīefan) and German erlauben, both from Proto-Germanic *uzlaubijaną (“to allow”) is unrelated.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: allowen, allouer, allaudō, allocō
Usage
Inflected Forms
allows (present, singular)
allowing (participle, present)
allowed (participle, past)
allowed (past)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
allowed (first person, past)
allowest (archaic, present)
allowed (past, second person)
allowedst (archaic, past)
alloweth (archaic, present)
allowed (past, singular)