Standard Lemma guide

selfbow

noun · 1 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: /ˈsɛlfbəʊ/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /ˈsɛlfˌboʊ/

1

noun

Meaning 1

A bow made from a single piece of wood (often referred to as a bow stave).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: archery, government, hobbies, lifestyle, martial-arts, military, politics, sports, war

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: simple bow

Antonyms: backed bow

History

Etymology

From self (“having its own or a single nature or character throughout without addition or change, unmixed; (archery) of a bow: made from a single piece of wood”, adjective) + bow.

Across languages

Translations

12 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: arc senzill — bow made from a single piece of wood
  • Catalan: arc simple — bow made from a single piece of wood
  • Chinese Mandarin: 單體弓 /单体弓 (dāntǐgōng) — bow made from a single piece of wood
  • Finnish: yhden puun jousi — bow made from a single piece of wood
  • German: Primitiv-Bogen — bow made from a single piece of wood
  • Japanese: セルフボウ (serufu bō) — bow made from a single piece of wood
  • Korean: 환목궁 (hwanmokgung) — bow made from a single piece of wood
  • Portuguese: autoarco — bow made from a single piece of wood
  • Portuguese: arco simples — bow made from a single piece of wood
  • Slovene: enostavni lok — bow made from a single piece of wood
  • Turkish: doğal yay — bow made from a single piece of wood
  • Turkish: tek parçalı yay — bow made from a single piece of wood