Standard Lemma guide

callow

adj · name · noun · 18 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈkæləʊ/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /ˈkæloʊ/
  • General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -æləʊ
  • CMU ARPABET: K AE1 L OW0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Immature, inexperienced, or naive.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

having no hair; bald, bare, hairless.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

adj

Meaning 3

Of a brick: unburnt.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: business, construction, manufacturing, masonry

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

adj

Meaning 4

Of a young bird, or (part of) its body: having not developed feathers yet; featherless, unfledged; hence, of other animals or their bodies: having no fur or hair; furless, hairless, unfurred.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: biology, natural-sciences, ornithology, zoology

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

adj

Meaning 5

Of a young bird, or (part of) its body: having not developed feathers yet; featherless, unfledged; hence, of other animals or their bodies: having no fur or hair; furless, hairless, unfurred.

Lacking life experience; immature, inexperienced, naive; also, of or relating to something immature or inexperienced.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: figuratively

Topics: biology, natural-sciences, ornithology, zoology

Examples

  • Those three young men are particularly callow youths.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: green, wet behind the ears, artless, callow, childlike, verdant, clueless, credulous, dewy-eyed, cute, fleeceable, foppotee, guileless, ingenuous, innocent, jejune, Panglossian, Panglossic, quaint, simple, simple-hearted, simple-minded, starry-eyed, unaffected, undesigning, unpretentious, unsophisticated, untested, unworldly, wide-eyed, immature, born yesterday, virgin

Antonyms: experienced, adultish, grown up, mature

6

adj

Meaning 6

In the life cycle of an animal: newly born or hatched; juvenile.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: broadly

Topics: biology, natural-sciences, zoology

Examples

  • a callow bee

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

7

adj

Meaning 7

Synonym of teneral (“of certain insects or other arthropods such as spiders: lacking colour or firmness just after ecdysis (“shedding of the exoskeleton”)”).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: broadly

Topics: biology, entomology, natural-sciences, zoology

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: teneral

Antonyms: none provided

8

adj

Meaning 8

Of land: having no vegetation; bare.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: obsolete

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

9

adj

Meaning 9

Of land: low-lying and near a river, and thus regularly submerged.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Ireland

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

10

name

Meaning 10

A surname.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

11

noun

Meaning 11

Synonym of teneral (“an insect or other arthropod such as a spider which has just undergone ecdysis (“shedding of the exoskeleton”) and so lacks colour or firmness”).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: biology, entomology, natural-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: teneral

Antonyms: none provided

12

noun

Meaning 12

An alluvial flat.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: geography, geology, natural-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

13

noun

Meaning 13

The upper layer of rubble in a quarry which has to be removed to reach the material to be mined.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: UK, archaic, countable, regional, uncountable

Topics: business, mining

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

14

noun

Meaning 14

A young bird which has not developed feathers yet; a nestling.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, obsolete, uncountable

Topics: biology, natural-sciences, ornithology

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

15

noun

Meaning 15

A young bird which has not developed feathers yet; a nestling.

A person lacking life experience; an immature or naive person.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, figuratively, obsolete, uncountable

Topics: biology, natural-sciences, ornithology

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

16

noun

Meaning 16

Synonym of topsoil (“upper layer of soil”).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: East-Anglia, countable, obsolete, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: topsoil

Antonyms: none provided

17

noun

Meaning 17

A low-lying meadow near a river which is regularly submerged.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Ireland

Examples

  • Near-synonyms: bog, fen, marsh, swamp, mire, moor, slough

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: flood meadow, water meadow, bog, fen, marsh, swamp, mire, moor, slough

Antonyms: none provided

18

adjective satellite

Meaning 18

young and inexperienced

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • a fledgling enterprise
  • a fledgling skier
  • an unfledged lawyer

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: fledgling, unfledged

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Middle English calwe (“(adjective) bald; (noun) bald person”), from Old English calu, caluw (“without hair, bald, callow”), from Proto-West Germanic *kalu, from Proto-Germanic *kalwaz (“bald; bare, naked”), and then either: * from Proto-Indo-European *gol(H)-wo- (“bald; bare, naked”), from *gelH- (“head; naked”); or * from Latin calvus (“bald”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kl̥H- (“bald; naked”). If not borrowed from Latin, Grimm’s law indicates that the Latin word is likely a false cognate, along with Persian کل (kal) and Sanskrit कुल्व (kulvá). cognates * Dutch kaal (“bald”) * German kahl (“bald”) * German Low German kahl (“bald”) * Russian го́лый (gólyj, “bare, naked, nude”) * Swedish kal, kalka (“bald”) * West Frisian keal (“bald”)

From Irish caladh (“meadow by a riverbank”), from Old Irish calad (“shore, landing, port”), probably a noun use of calad (“hard”, adjective), from Proto-Celtic *kaletos (“cruel; hard; strong”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlH-eto- (“cold”) (in the sense of something frozen and thus hard), from an unclear root *ḱl(H)- or *kl(H)- (“hard”); or related to Proto-Germanic *halluz (“boulder, rock, stone”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kel- (“to cut, hew”). Perhaps influenced by Etymology 1 in some manner.

Across languages

Translations

33 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: неопитен (neopiten) — lacking life experience — see also immature, inexperienced, naive
  • Chinese Mandarin: 没经年 — lacking life experience — see also immature, inexperienced, naive
  • Czech: nezkušený — lacking life experience — see also immature, inexperienced, naive
  • Czech: nezralý — lacking life experience — see also immature, inexperienced, naive
  • Dutch: groen — lacking life experience — see also immature, inexperienced, naive
  • Dutch: onrijp — lacking life experience — see also immature, inexperienced, naive
  • Dutch: onervaren — lacking life experience — see also immature, inexperienced, naive
  • Finnish: kypsymätön — lacking life experience — see also immature, inexperienced, naive
  • Finnish: kokematon — lacking life experience — see also immature, inexperienced, naive
  • Finnish: vihreä — lacking life experience — see also immature, inexperienced, naive
  • German: grün — lacking life experience — see also immature, inexperienced, naive
  • German: unerfahren — lacking life experience — see also immature, inexperienced, naive
  • German: unreif — lacking life experience — see also immature, inexperienced, naive
  • Greek: άπειρος (ápeiros) — lacking life experience — see also immature, inexperienced, naive
  • Greek: πρωτόβγαλτος (protóvgaltos) — lacking life experience — see also immature, inexperienced, naive
  • Hungarian: taknyos — lacking life experience — see also immature, inexperienced, naive
  • Hungarian: zöldfülű — lacking life experience — see also immature, inexperienced, naive
  • Irish: gan chiall — lacking life experience — see also immature, inexperienced, naive
  • Māori: waitau — lacking life experience — see also immature, inexperienced, naive
  • Polish: niedojrzały — lacking life experience — see also immature, inexperienced, naive
  • Polish: niedoświadczony — lacking life experience — see also immature, inexperienced, naive
  • Portuguese: imaturo — lacking life experience — see also immature, inexperienced, naive
  • Portuguese: inexperiente — lacking life experience — see also immature, inexperienced, naive
  • Portuguese: verde — lacking life experience — see also immature, inexperienced, naive
  • Russian: нео́пытный (neópytnyj) — lacking life experience — see also immature, inexperienced, naive
  • Russian: незре́лый (nezrélyj) — lacking life experience — see also immature, inexperienced, naive
  • Spanish: inmaduro — lacking life experience — see also immature, inexperienced, naive
  • Spanish: verde — lacking life experience — see also immature, inexperienced, naive
  • Ukrainian: недосві́дчений (nedosvídčenyj) — lacking life experience — see also immature, inexperienced, naive
  • Ukrainian: незрі́лий (nezrílyj) — lacking life experience — see also immature, inexperienced, naive
  • Finnish: kokematon — of or relating to something immature or inexperienced
  • Finnish: tulvatasanko — alluvial flat
  • Finnish: raakku — upper layer of rubble in a quarry