pew

noun

ˈpyü 

1

: a compartment in the auditorium of a church providing seats for several persons

2

: one of the benches with backs and sometimes doors fixed in rows in a church

Examples of pew in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The secretary of Health and Human Services had traveled to the small, remote city of Seminole, where 1,000 mourners for Daisy filled the wooden pews of an unmarked Mennonite church. —Tom Bartlett, The Atlantic, 10 Apr. 2025

In a simple white church in Richmond, Virginia, tourists regularly fill the pews to hear a re-enactment of a speech first given within the building’s walls 250 years ago, on March 23, 1775. —Cassandra Good, Smithsonian Magazine, 21 Mar. 2025

Majors says congregants flooded to services dressed in their finest and crowded into the pale wood pews. —Buffy Gorrilla, NPR, 28 Feb. 2025

Police are searching for a crook who pilfered an elderly woman’s purse from her pew at a church in Brooklyn, cops said Friday. —Roni Jacobson, New York Daily News, 29 Mar. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle English pewe, from Middle French dialect (Picardy) puie balustrade, from Latin podia, plural of podium parapet, podium, from Greek podion base, diminutive of pod-, pous foot — more at foot

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for pew

• blew
• blue
• boo
• brew
• chew
• chou
• clue
• coo
• coup
• crew
• cue
• dew

Kids Definition

pew

noun

ˈpyü 

: one of the benches with backs and sometimes doors set in rows in a church